Plum family whose house exploded treated at hospitals, 1 child with burns; no gas leaks found

Authorities are still investigating the cause of a house explosion Friday night along Hialeah Drive in Plum that sent a family to local hospitals.

Although the family of five — a husband, wife and three children, ages 2, 6 and 11 — escaped the house safely, one child suffered burns to his back, according to Plum officials.

The explosion obliterated the house and damaged several nearby homes.

Plum Mayor Harry Schlegel said the 11-year-old boy was playing games in the basement when the explosion occurred and he escaped through a basement window.

“He showed remarkable maturity for his age and had the presence of mind to get out,” Schlegel said.

The boy was flown by a medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital because of burns to his back, although his life was not in danger, said Schlegel, who received the details from the Holiday Park fire department.

When the explosion occurred, the parents were getting ready for bed and the other two children were already in bed, the mayor said.

The parents and other children also exited the home safely.

Schlegel didn’t release the identities of the family but expected the community to pull together to help the family in the days ahead.

The family was treated at local hospitals, said Matt Brown, chief of Allegheny County’s emergency services.

But their conditions weren’t released by Plum or Allegheny County officials on Sunday.

The incident remained under investigation on Sunday, Brown said.

The Allegheny County fire marshal along with Peoples Gas and the state Public Utility Commission determined over the weekend that there weren’t any outside natural gas leaks at or near the home.

The gas company will continue to conduct surveys in the neighborhood over the next several days.

The Public Utility Commission’s safety division is coordinating with the fire marshal and other agencies for an independent review, spokesman Nils Hagen-Frederiksen said.

The federal National Transportation Safety Board gathered information on the incident but is not investigating it, said Peter Knudson, an NTSB spokesman.