Mother describes ‘nightmare’ after blast destroyed her family’s Plum home

It was a normal Friday night for Laura Petty and her family at their new home on Hialeah Drive in Plum.

It was shortly after 11 p.m. She was sleeping, and her husband, Jake Rabb, had fallen asleep in the living room. Of their three sons, Dean, 2, and Colin, 6, were sleeping, but 11-year-old Bryson was still up and playing video games.

She doesn’t remember the explosion.

“I don’t remember anything,” Petty, 31, said Monday. “I don’t remember hearing a blast or feeling the blast or anything. I woke up in bed with the roof collapsed on me. I was super disoriented. If it wasn’t for Jake, we wouldn’t have made it out.

“He was the one running around making sure we all got out safe,” she said. “I was so out of it. It was the worst nightmare.”

Petty said she doesn’t know what caused the explosion and fire that reduced her family’s home at 5021 Hialeah Drive to rubble. The Allegheny County Fire Marshal’s Office is still investigating.

“Whenever we first got out of my bedroom, all the doors and everything, they were all, like, hanging off the walls,” Petty said. “The whole side of the house was just open and collapsed.”

Bryson was the first one out of the house, but Petty said they didn’t know that at first.

“Jake went back inside to look for him,” she said. “I was trying to get out. I fell through something, and I have bruises on my leg.”

Petty said all five family members had scrapes, bruises and cuts. Bryson had the worst of it, suffering first- and second-degree burns.

On Monday, Petty said they were all together at her parents’ home in Swissvale.

Petty’s sister, Jennifer Gross, was raising money for them through the online fundraising site GoFundMe. As of Monday afternoon, about 200 people had given more than $12,000, exceeding a $10,000 goal.

A nonprofit in Plum, Angels in DaSkys, also is accepting donations. The organization has a group page on Facebook. They were suggesting giving cash, gift cards and toiletries, as no more clothes are needed.

A representative of the group could not be reached Monday.

Petty said Bryson is in fifth grade at Holiday Park Elementary School, and Dean is a first grader at Center Elementary. She said the schools are helping her family.

Although they lost everything, including their two vehicles, Petty couldn’t think of much they need right now, as donations of clothes, shoes and toiletries have been made. The house was insured.

Petty said the house was the first for her family to own. They bought it in December and moved there from a rental, also in Plum, at the end of February.

They looked at several houses before the one on Hialeah.

“There was just something about it. It felt right to be there,” she said. “It was everything that we really needed. It was spacious, and there was a ton of room for storage. There were extra rooms for them to play in. I just loved everything about it.”

The house had an in-ground pool in the backyard, which Petty said her boys were excited about but never got a chance to use.

“I thought it was going to be our forever home,” she said.