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Mar 6, 2008 3:44 pm US/Eastern
Pipe May Have Been Source In Initial Gas Leak
A section of piping from the front of the home has been sent to the National Transportation Safety Board for testing
PLUM BORO (KDKA) ―
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The investigation continues into what caused a house explosion in Plum Boro that claimed the life of a man and injured his young granddaughter.
KDKA
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Medics attend to a Gianna Pettinato, 4, after Wednesday's house explosion in Plum.
Murphy Moschetta/KDKA
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An aerial view of a house explosion in Plum Boro.
KDKA
Crews remain on the scene of a house explosion in Plum Boro today that left one man dead, a little girl injured, reduced a home to rubble and damaged several other homes in the neighborhood.
Officials say Richard Leith, 64, from Trafford, died following the explosion and his granddaughter, Gianna Pettinato, 4, was taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office now says that Leith died from blunt force trauma to the trunk and thermal injuries.
Meanwhile, the community is just thankful the little girl is recovering.
"Just the pictures from these angles don't do it justice," said Officer Scott Ricketts, of the Plum Police Department. "It is an absolute miracle this little girl is alive and hopefully will make a full recovery."
Officials also say they believe they may have found the source of the initial leak that lead to the explosion.
The house explosion happened around 1:40 p.m. on Wednesday at home on Mardi Gras Drive in the Holiday Park section of the neighborhood.
Officials with Dominion Peoples Gas along with the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.
KDKA's Alison Morris reports that officials with Dominion Peoples Gas say they now believe a pipe may have been the source of the original gas leak and explosion.
Authorities say they have removed a pipe from the front of where the home once stood along Mardi Gras Drive. It will be sent to the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington D.C. for further testing.
"It is a section of pipe and it was found and so forth, but there's a lot of processes that need to take place before we make a determination of how the pipe got into that type of situation," said Bob Full, of Allegheny County Emergency Services. "The good thing is we've got the pipe and it's been removed for further analysis."
Officials say they hope to have the results by Friday.
In a statement, the NTSB said, "An eight-inch diameter natural gas pipeline and a two-inch diameter natural gas pipeline were located in the vicinity of the exploded house. Both pipelines were operated by Dominion Peoples Gas. Post-accident bar hole testing identified significant amounts of gas in the ground in the vicinity of the pipelines."
However, officials do say they still are unsure of what happened in the home to cause the explosion.
"We have all the expertise out here to conduct this investigation and obviously, with the loss of life, we're very sad for the family here and the neighborhood and the hardship that they're going to experience here," said Full.
Stay with KDKA for the latest details in this developing story.
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