June 08--Charles Pike joined the Dover YMCA three months ago and signed up for a yoga class that starts at 9:15 a.m. every Monday and Friday.
On Friday, yoga saved his life.
Moments after the 82-year-old Pike left his home in the 5000 block of Carlisle Road for his Friday morning class, his house exploded.
"It's God's providence," Pike said as he sat in the rain while firefighters worked to put out the fire that had destroyed his Dover Township home of 15 years. "I left two minutes before the explosion. Two minutes!"
Usually, his daughter Nicola Pike picks him up for class. But on Friday, he drove himself.
"I left three or four minutes before I usually leave," he said. "Boy, was I lucky."
The explosion -- which is still under investigation -- blew out the side wall of the brick house. Its force also blew the roof off of the front porch. Glass from the windows was strewn across Carlisle Avenue, and debris was found 50 to 100 feet away.
Betty Sunday, who lives more than a quarter-mile from the house, said she and her husband were drinking coffee in their living room when they heard "a big boom." The blast shook her house.
"We had no idea what it was," she said. "It scared me."
Rick Greenwalt, a veterinarian at the Dover Area Animal Hospital -- about 25 to 30 feet away next door -- said he was examining a dog in a room facing the house when it exploded.
"I looked out the window, and the whole side of the house was gone," he said. "I'm just surprised none of our windows were blown in."
He went next door and checked to see whether Pike was home and then called 911.
"The dog handled it well," he said, "but my heart jumped a bit."
No one was injured in the blast. West Manchester Township Fire Chief Dave Nichols said
it was just luck that no one was driving by or dropping a pet off at the veterinary office when the explosion occurred. And it was just luck that Pike was not home when it happened.
"Had he been inside the home at the time, we would have had a different outcome," Nichols said.
The Pike family is well-known in this part of Dover Township, and many friends and neighbors flocked to the scene, in a steady rain, to offer support and help in any way.
"They are very nice people," Sunday said. "This is so terrible."
Pike and his late wife, Ursula, had lived in Germany for 27 years. He was a school teacher, and in 1960, moved to Germany, where he met Ursula. After they wed, they remained in Germany. When the family moved stateside, Ursula brought her collection of antiques and collectibles, Nicola Pike said, all feared lost in the explosion.
"It's a big loss," Nicola said. "But they are just things."
One of those things was a painting of a castle in Francona that had belonged to her grandfather. Dan Pike, Charles' son and a veterinarian at the family-owned animal hospital, said the painting had particular sentimental value. His grandfather was an orthopedic surgeon in Germany, and after World War II, when the country was essentially on the barter system, he had accepted the painting as payment from a patient. The painting hung in his office for years, and when Charles and Ursula moved to the United States, they brought it with them.
Dan Pike tried to salvage the painting, finding its singed remains among the rubble.
"It is very meaningful to my family," he said.
Firefighters' efforts to douse the fire that started after the explosion were thwarted by a couple of factors. They had to make sure the natural gas service to the building was off, and they had received reports that Pike was a veteran and had a stockpile of munitions. That turned out to be false, Nichols said.
Initially, workers at the animal hospital thought they'd have to evacuate the pets housed in the kennels and at the facility for treatment. But after consulting with firefighters, they decided against that.
Nichols praised the response of the workers at the veterinary clinic, saying they immediately accounted for all staff and animals, saving the firefighters from having to perform that task.
Workers from Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania were on the scene to check for gas leaks and found none after checking the service lines to Pike's house and surrounding structures, said company spokesman Russell Bedell. He added that no leaks had previously been reported in the area.
Hours after the explosion, Carlisle Road remained closed and firefighters sifted through the rubble looking for hot spots and lingering embers.
Nicola Pike pondered her father's luck.
"One thing about Dad," she said, "he's always on time."
Help from around the county
Friday morning, at the time of the explosion, Dover Township's firefighters were attending the funeral for 24-year-old firefighter Michael Eshbach, killed in an ATV crash last Saturday.
Firefighters from other county departments pitched in to cover, West Manchester Township Fire Chief Dave Nichols said.
Firefighters from the Wrightsville department -- who were stationed at the township firehouse during the service -- were first on the scene, Nichols said. Other departments responding included Wellsville, York City, West Manchester Township and York Area United Fire and Rescue, among others.
Other house explosions:
March 10, 2007: An explosion rocked the 900 block of West College Avenue in York. It damaged at least five homes and injured several people. No cause was determined.
Feb. 28, 2007: A York Township home at 2433 S. Queen St. exploded, leveling the home and later igniting the remaining debris. No one was injured.
Columbia Gas officials traced the explosion to problems with a pipeline near the home. It had to be completely replaced along Memory Lane from South Queen Street to School Street.
In the days after the blast, gas service was returned to all existing homes except the fire-damaged house next door to the one that exploded.
Aug. 4, 2003: Francis Thompson left his home in Hopewell Township for a golf game. As he sat in his car with the key in the ignition, he heard a gigantic explosion and watched the four sides of his home blow apart. It could have been a 200-pound propane tank, the fire chief said. AmeriGas hired a fire investigator to locate the cause.
Feb. 12, 2003: Gas from an underground leak drifted into houses through foundations on Circle Drive in Jacobus. About 4 p.m., Chris and Amy Krichten's house at 6 Circle Drive exploded. The couple and Amy's children, Josh and Megan Luckenbaugh, and a visiting friend, Ted Hake, escaped with their lives. The blast sparked a blaze that destroyed the house and vehicles.
Chris, Amy and Megan spent time in the Bayview Burn Center in Baltimore. Josh and Hake suffered no injuries.
Jan. 11, 1990: A home at 1117 S. Albemarle St. in Spring Garden Township blew up 30 minutes after a caller reported the smell of gas in the area. The explosion occurred minutes after the home had been evacuated. The blast and its ensuing fire razed the home of Brian and Tracy Smith. No one was injured.
Jan. 19, 1984: A natural gas explosion gutted a town house at 31 W. King St. in York, injuring eight people and forcing the evacuation of four downtown blocks.
1974: A gas explosion ripped through a house at 1325 Ogontz St. in Spring Garden Township. A woman jumped to safety from a second-floor window, but her 87-year-old father-in-law died in the basement.
Compiled by Daily Record/Sunday News staff
Copyright 2013 - York Daily Record, Pa.
