1 killed in trailer explosion near Scottdale

One person was killed when a trailer exploded Saturday afternoon in East Huntingdon, said West­moreland County Coroner Tim Carson.

Resident Sam Riggs said she had not heard or felt anything like it before.

She lives a few houses away on Round Top Court, where the trailer exploded then burned about 4:15 p.m. Saturday.

The mobile home community is off Porter Avenue just outside Scottdale.

“I was sitting in my living room, and I heard a big boom,” Riggs said. “The windows on the house shook a little bit and a couple of pictures fell down off the wall. I ran over to my door to look out to see what was going on, and all I saw was a big plume of smoke.”

Neighbors tried to rescue the man who lived in the trailer, but flames prevented them from getting inside, Riggs said.

He was colloquially called the mayor of the community.

“Everybody’s kind of tight knit back in this little corner,” Riggs said. “We called him the mayor because he always had all the good gossip for some reason. With him sitting on the porch, he could see any cars coming and going. It was an enclosed porch. It had the windows and the roof and everything on it.”

Neighbors attempted to rescue the man shortly before the home became engulfed in flames. The porch was completely destroyed.

Kendra Jones and her husband, Tim, live about nine houses away from the explosion and felt the tremors.

“We could feel it the whole way down here,” she said. “Our whole house shook. You could see the flames and smoke.”

The family had just returned home from the Scottdale Fall Festival.

The couple was relaxing, and their grandchildren were nearby when it happened.

“We’re pretty shook up,” Jones said. “We were just sitting on the back deck, and the kids were down over the hill playing.”

The family said the explosion rocked the house and they could see flames and smoke shortly afterward.

“You ever felt a monster truck when it flips over and smashes and makes that big noise?” said Jones’ grandson Dakota Baker, 16. “A crashing noise. We thought it was the farm over there. It sounded like a tractor fell at first.”

Jones said they had been friends with the victim for at least 30 years. They described him as very friendly.

Multiple fire departments responded, including firefighters from Calumet, Everson, South and North Connellsville, Mt. Pleasant, Scottdale and East Huntingdon.

Baker said he saw multiple trucks within minutes and was surprised by how quickly they responded.

Riggs believes many of the volunteer fire companies were involved in the fall festival parade, which may have helped with the response time.

“They were all literally right down in town,” she said. “So they got here crazy fast.”

Riggs’ son, Nick, and his family live directly across the street from the home.

She said his children were pretty shaken up, so he took them out for a while to calm down and possibly get dinner.

A doorbell video Nick Riggs shared with TribLive shows the explosion.

Several other neighbors who did not wish to be identified said they knew the man and were shaken up. They also had items fall off their walls as a result of the explosion.

A state police fire marshal is investigating the cause of the explosion.

Investigators plan to review video Nick Riggs’ video footage.

It began to rain with sporadic cloud-to-cloud lightning around 6 p.m.

Residents braved the elements with umbrellas or sat on covered porches and watched as firefighters tore down portions of the exploded home.