Watch: Multiple Explosions Destroy Houses in Clinton Township, PA
The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
(TNS)
CLINTON TWP. — A man crawled out a second-floor window and jumped off the roof as the home behind him collapsed during a massive fire and a series of explosions Thursday morning at a lakeside Wayne County community.
Fire officials blame a leaking propane tank.
According to state police, an 84-year-old woman was in the kitchen of her 37 Sensentine Road home at Elk Lake when an initial blast partially collapsed the structure. Blocked by debris, she yelled for her 63-year-old son upstairs to climb out a window, forcing him to jump from the roof to safety.
The woman, her son and her husband — who had been on the porch — all escaped the burning home and were transported to Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton for treatment. Officials did not name the victims.
Fire crews from throughout a three-county area responded at about 10 a.m. and battled the flames for several hours in temperatures that reached nearly 90 degrees.
Videos posted by residents of the lake show thick, black smoke billowing high into the sky following the initial explosion.
At least two other blasts followed and the fires spread to adjacent homes along Sensentine Road, a block off the shores of the 158-acre lake in the western part of the county.
Eyewitnesses at the lake say many of the homes along the road were constructed in the mid-20th century and made of wood. They said seven homes were involved in the fire and four had been leveled.
The names and conditions of those transported to the hospital were unknown as of 4 p.m.
State police say the investigation is ongoing, but preliminary findings indicate one of several 100-pound cylinders located outside the residence may have experienced a failure, resulting in a propane tank igniting and exploding.
Investigators believe two additional propane cylinders exploded during the fire.
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