One dead, one hurt in house explosion

PLUM, Pa. -- An explosion flattened a house in suburban Pittsburgh today, killing one person, injuring at least one other and damaging at least eight neighboring homes, authorities said. The cause was not immediately determined.

Pieces of burnt insulation and debris were scattered over a wide area, and smoke and flames still rose from the site hours after the 1:40 p.m. blast in Plum, about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh.

One person died as a result of the blast, said John J. Smith, an investigator with the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office. He declined to give details.

Police had said earlier that a child and an elderly man were hurt, and it was not immediately clear whether the deceased person was either of those people. Spokespeople at both hospitals where the two victims were taken said they had no details on their conditions.

Neighbor Nancy Wineland, 55, said she was cooking in her house when she heard the explosion, which cracked one of her windows.

"It was one huge, loud explosion and the whole house shook," Wineland said. She said she ran through her house to check for possible damage before going outside, where she saw "flames and smoke and debris everywhere."

"The smoke was so thick, you couldn't see anything," she said. "You couldn't even breathe."

Plum Borough Police Chief Frank Monaco told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that a man and his 4-year-old granddaughter were injured, and that both had been blown out of the house. The man had burns on 50 percent of his body. The girl had a broken femur but her injuries were apparently not life-threatening, he said.

"That she wasn't killed is a miracle," he said.

Elmore Lockley, a spokesman for the Dominion Peoples natural gas utility, said the cause was not immediately apparent. He said there had been no reports of odors that might indicate a gas leak and no major construction in the area in recent months.