Allentown firefighters battle a fire after an explosion near the intersection of 13th and Allen Streets in Allentown, Pa., early Thursday morning...
(AP Photo/Rich Schultz)
Allentown firefighters battle a fire after an explosion near the intersection of 13th and Allen Streets in Allentown, Pa., early Thursday morning Feb.10, 2011. Several buildings are involved and at least two people are still unaccounted for. About 750 people, including elderly residents of a high rise, were cleared from the area. Many were taken to the Allentown fairgrounds for temporary refuge.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A natural gas explosion rocked a downtown neighborhood overnight, leveling two houses and spawning fires that burned for hours through an entire row of neighboring homes. Three people were killed, including an infant, and at least two others were unaccounted for Thursday.
A couple in their 70s lived in a two-story row house that blew up about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, police Chief Roger MacClean said. Michelle Hall told The Morning Call newspaper that her in-laws, Beatrice Hall, 74, and William, 79, lived in the home.
The victims ranged in age from 4 months to 79 years old, fire Chief Robert Scheirer said, but city officials have not released the names of those killed or missing.
Scheirer said 47 buildings were damaged, and eight were expected to be total losses.
The cause of the explosion was unclear. The state Public Utility Commission is investigating and looking for any violations of state or federal law, said agency spokeswoman Jennifer Kocher.
"We don't know if it was the main, we don't know if it was the service line, if it was inside the house, outside the house," Kocher said. "It's all very preliminary at this point."
The blaze was put out early Thursday, delayed by the difficulty of digging through packed layers of snow and ice to a ruptured underground gas line that was feeding the flames, Scheirer said. About 500 to 600 people who were evacuated were allowed to return home.
Utility crews had worked to shut off the gas mains in the area. The type of main used in that area typically do not have valves that allow for simply shutting off the stream of gas, a spokesman for the utility said in an e-mail.
A routine leak-detection check of the gas main that serves the area on the day before the explosion found no problems, said Joe Swope of Reading-based UGI Utilities Inc. The main dates to 1928.
There's no history of leaks for that section of 12-inch cast-iron main, and there were no calls about gas odors before the explosion, said Swope.