DUNMORE — Relatives are grieving the loss of an 86-year-old woman after her home exploded and collapsed early this morning on Smith Street in Dunmore.
Madlyn Mecca was about to leave her home at 413 Smith Street shortly before 4 a.m. after a water main break and a strong smell of natural gas was reported on her block, said her cousin and neighbor Carmel Verrastro Biko.
A man was coming to pick her up but he didn’t make it. She waited on the porch.
“We don’t know if she went back in the house or if she was just out there waiting for him to come,” she said.
Then the house was gone.
The call of a house explosion came in at 3:49 a.m. Multiple alarms were called in after that, and a mixture of fire companies were on the scene, according to the Lackawanna County Communications Center.
A state police fire marshal is also on the scene investigating. Lackawanna County Coroner Tim Rowland was called to the scene and arrived around 8 a.m., but has made no official statement on anyone killed in the explosion.
Video by Paul Nardozzi
The American Red Cross has opened a warming center at the Dunmore Community Center in the 1400 block of Monroe Avenue, for more than 30 residents evacuated from the area. The building was equipped with sleeping cots, a table full of board games and hot food.
Tears welled in Amanda Burke’s eyes at the center. She moved into 411 Smith St. Wednesday, she said. Today the house and most of her belongings are destroyed.
The 23-year-old was awakened early this morning by a firefighter banging on her door. He warned her of a gas leak, and told her to get out immediately.
She grabbed her coat and purse and scrambled to the evacuation school bus parked a safe distance away. While sitting in the bus, she heard the blast.
The house next door, 413 Smith St., had exploded. By day break, only a pile of rubble remained.
“I looked up and there was flames,” she said, standing in pajama pants at the Dunmore Community Center where neighbors are staying. “I’m still in shock. I can’t even believe it.”
UGI Utilities got a gas odor call from 911 at 2:23 a.m., arrived at 2:50 a.m., and said the gas was off in the 300 and 400 blocks of Smith Street at 3:46, said UGI spokesman Don Brominski on the scene.
“But I guess some gas had migrated,” he said. An investigation will be needed to determine exactly what happened.
New gas lines were installed along Smith Street this spring and are made of high-density plastic.
Pennsylvania American Water Co. crews also are on the scene.
Crews were responding to a main break on Smith Street when the explosion occurred, spokeswoman Susan Turcmanovich said. Pennsylvania American also will be investigating, she said.
The water utility is coordinating with UGI and the state police fire marshals unit regarding repairs to the broken main. No customers are without water, Ms. Turcmanovich said.
Pennsylvania American received a report of a water main break near Smith and Laurel Streets in Dunmore around 2 a.m. A water company employee arrived at approximately 3 a.m. to assess the water main break as the company was assembling crews to repair the break. The crew had not yet started working on site when a gas explosion occurred at approximately 3:45 a.m.
Visible from Interstate 81, the blaze had the area blanketed in smoke at 5 a.m. Numerous fire apparatus battling the blaze stretched down Smith almost to Drinker Street. The fire appeared to be out at about 7 a.m. but crews remained on the scene wetting down hot spots.
Charlie Mecca, who lives two homes down, said he was asleep in bed around 3:30 a.m. all of a sudden there was an “unbelievable explosion.” It rattled his whole house. The shock wave was so powerful it shattered windows in neighboring houses, Mr. Mecca said.
Standing in the cold in gym shorts and a sweatshirt a firefighter gave him, Matt Oakley, 18, said he was awake in his bedroom directly across the street and saw the house blow up. The shock wave shattered his window and sent debris into his home, Mr. Oakley said. He and family members ran out, and saw flames he estimated were 50 feet high, as firefighters told his family to move down the street away from the blast.
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