No evidence found linking deadly Crescent Township house explosion to public utility natural gas service

CRESCENT TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) — Investigators say they found no evidence linking the house explosion in Crescent Township that killed two people earlier this year to public utility natural gas service. 

The Public Utility Commission said Monday that its Safety Division found nothing to connect the explosion to any public utility natural gas service under its jurisdiction. The blast in March leveled the home on Riverview Road and killed 87-year-old Helen Mitchell and 89-year-old David Mitchell Jr. 

While there was no public utility natural gas service connected to the home, the PUC says there was a private natural gas well and propane tank on the property, both of which fall outside the agency's jurisdiction. 

"While Columbia Gas has natural gas mains in the general area, there were no utility gas mains in the immediate vicinity around the site; there was no public utility natural gas service connected to the home; and no utility gas leaks were found," the PUC wrote in a press release.

The agency says any further investigation is outside the scope of its jurisdiction, but the PUC will continue to serve as a resource to the Allegheny County fire marshal, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and other local authorities. 

The Crescent Township house explosion was one of three that has recently rocked the Pittsburgh area. A little over a year ago, a house exploded in Plum's Rustic Ridge neighborhood, killing five adults and a child. A few months after that, a man was taken to the hospital with severe burns after a carriage house in Sewickley Heights was leveled by a blast.