Gas service not to blame for fatal Crescent Township house explosion

Municipal natural gas service was not to blame for an explosion that killed two people and leveled a home in Crescent Township in March.

The finding was announced Tuesday by the state Public Utility Commission, which concluded the home on Riverview Road did not have municipal natural gas service from Columbia Gas, and no leaks of gas transmission lines in the area were found. The home did have a private gas well on its property and a propane supply tank, but those fall outside the PUC’s jurisdiction to investigate, the agency said in a statement.

The Allegheny County Fire Marshal’s Office is continuing its investigation. The PUC release said the agency will continue to support investigation efforts of other agencies if needed.

“The focus of any further investigation of this incident is outside the scope of the PUC’s jurisdiction. The PUC remains committed to its public safety mission, and Safety Division engineers and experts will continue to serve as a resource to the Allegheny County Fire Marshal, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and other local authorities as they continue their investigations,” the release states.

Helen Mitchell, 87, and her husband, David L. Mitchell Jr., 89, died in the blast.

The Crescent explosion came exactly seven months after a house explosion killed six people and rocked Plum’s Rustic Ridge neighborhood in August 2023. In that explosion, too, the PUC found no gas company lines were to blame. The Fire Marshal’s Office and other agencies continue to investigate the cause with no timeline given for when the case could be solved.

Just three months before the Crescent explosion, on Dec. 12, one person was injured when a cottage on the grounds of a Sewickley Heights estate exploded. The injured man was a plumber doing work in the cottage. The county Fire Marshal’s Office is heading the investigation of that blast, as well.