Manslaughter, drug charges filed in San Francisco Sunset District home explosion; Victim identified
SAN FRANCISCO -- A 53-year-old San Francisco man, whose Sunset District home was ripped apart in a horrific explosion last week, was formally charged Wednesday with manslaughter, manufacturing a controlled substance and other counts related to the fiery blast.
Darron Price, who was taken into custody on Friday, was scheduled to be arraigned on multiple charges in a San Francisco courtroom Wednesday afternoon.
Those charges include involuntary manslaughter, manufacturing a controlled substance, four counts of reckless burning, two counts of child endangerment, and one count of elder abuse in connection with the explosion.
Authorities also identified the victim who died in the explosion and fire as 51-year-old San Francisco resident Rita Price. Police sources told KPIX she was the suspect's wife.
"We must send a clear message that the manufacture of dangerous drugs will not be tolerated in San Francisco," District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in announcing the charges. "This activity is not only dangerous for the individuals involved but entire neighborhoods as this case so tragically demonstrates."
Price died in the explosion and her caretaker was badly burned and remains hospitalized.
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On Wednesday afternoon during Darron Price's first court appearance, the judge presiding over the case pushed the arraignment to Friday in order to give Price's public defender more time to review evidence.
Investigators say they found equipment used to manufacture hash oil in the rubble of the home following the explosion.
Making hash oil, a highly concentrated and potent cannabis extract, is extremely volatile and dangerous. Butane, an odorless, extremely flammable gas, is used in the process.
"The butane lighters, if you think about how they operate, they're designed to ignite immediately," said retired FBI agent Jeff Harp. "They're very volatile, and so if you're using those types of chemicals in an atmosphere or in an area where you have say a dryer that has an ignition source, you got a recipe for disaster."
San Francisco Fire Captain Jonathan Baxter told KPIX that fire dispatch received multiple calls at about 9:22 a.m. Thursday reporting an explosion at a home on 22nd Avenue near Noriega Street.
Over 100 firefighters and 35 fire trucks responded to the fire, which initially prompted an evacuation order for the entire 1700 block of 22nd Avenue, though it was later changed to only an evacuation order for homes between the 1730 and 1750 block of the street. The remainder of the block was ordered to shelter in place.
In a photo tweeted out by the firefighters' union, the single-family home appeared completely destroyed with the roof and upper floor collapsed onto the lower garage area.
San Francisco fire investigators were joined by ATF agents in investigating the blast that left two adjacent homes red-tagged and about a dozen other homes on the block suffering from broken windows and other damage.