EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on July 23. It’s being reposted on the two-year anniversary of the tragedy in Plum.

Families of the six people killed in a 2023 house explosion in Plum’s Rustic Ridge subdivision have sued multiple companies for negligence and wrongful death, blaming them for the catastrophe and pinpointing the cause as a pipeline leak that filled the basement of Heather and Paul Oravitz’s home with flammable gas that ignited.

Separate lawsuits were filed July 22 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on behalf of the Oravitzes’ two adult children, Taylor and Cole, and the family of Kevin Sebunia.

They allege a failure to vent an overpressurized gas line or repair an “unchecked” leak from a 2.5-inch gash in an underground pipe led to the Aug. 12, 2023, disaster, which destroyed three houses and damaged a dozen more.

Heather Oravitz, 51, Plum’s director of community development, died that day. Her husband, Paul, 56, an ultrasound sonographer, died four days later.

Also killed on the same day as the blast were four friends and neighbors who had been in the Oravitz home: Michael Thomas, 57, Plum’s borough manager; Sebunia, 55, a sales consultant; and father and son Casey Clontz, 38, and Keegan Clontz, 12.

Additional lawsuits, all making the same allegations, were filed later in the day July 22 by Thomas’ widow, Jacqueline Thomas, who was injured when the second floor of her house collapsed because of the blast next door; and Jennifer Clontz, Casey’s widow.

Authorities have not reached any official conclusion about the cause of the explosion. But the lawyers theorize odorless natural gas from the leaking pipe migrated underground into the Oravitzes’ basement and continued to power a water heater, even though the appliance’s gas supply had been shut off.

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