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Explosion levels Mount Pleasant home

By Jackie Beranek 6 min read

MOUNT PLEASANT – A Thursday morning explosion rocked Mount Pleasant and sent an elderly maintenance manager at Young Apartments on Clay Avenue to a Pittsburgh hospital with serious body burns. The explosion that sounded like “a bomb going off,” according to Young Apartment residents, flattened the one-story house owned by 77-year-old maintenance manager Henry Redepenny.

Apartment complex owner Don Young said Redepenny built the house when he helped build the apartment complex a number of years ago. He also said that he believed that Redepenny was on the side patio of the house, located across a narrow alleyway from the apartments complex, at the time of the explosion.

“Mr. Redepenny is such a nice man,” said Young. “He sure didn’t deserve what happened to him here today.”

Young said there are 35 units in the apartment complex. He additionally said that some of the first-floor apartments across the alleyway sustained some glass damage.

“Some of the first-floor residents windows were blown out and a commode in one of the apartments was damaged,” said Young. “None of the tenants were hurt but they were evacuated because of safety concerns.”

Young said the residents were taken to a Mount Pleasant fire station and kept there for a couple of hours before emergency personnel gave the all clear to return again. He said the explosion happened at about 7:30 a.m.

Terry Hopperstead, who lives in apartment 214 said he was in bed when the explosion happened.

“It was like a nuclear explosion,” said Hopperstead. “It totally leveled Mr. Redepenny’s house. The explosion blew my windows out and I couldn’t get out my door. I could hear him (Redepenny) screaming for help.”

Hopperstead said after he got his pants on he noticed that the explosion blew his commode apart.

“I shut the water off in the bathroom and since my door wouldn’t open I climbed out the window,” he continued. “By that time there were other people over at Mr. Redepenny’s and they drug him away off into the grass until the paramedics came. He was burnt real bad.”

Hopperstead said he also believed that Redepenny was on his patio on the side of the house at the time of the explosion.

“He is such a sweet-hearted of a man,” said Hopperstead. “I think they took him to Frick Hospital before taking him by medical helicopter to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh. It’s a miracle that he is even alive.”

Hopperstead said it was also a miracle that there were no children outside playing at the time of the explosion because they are always in the alleyway riding their bikes.

“It happened so early that I don’t think the kids were even up yet,” he said. “If they would have been out here playing who knows how many people would have been hurt.”

Debris from the explosion covered the ground in front of the house and in the alleyway and the only thing that was still standing in front of Redepenny’s house was a statute of the Virgin Mary in a decorative archway.

Hopperstead said he doesn’t know for sure what caused the explosion but he said it could have been Redepenny’s oxygen tank.

“They are not really saying one way or the other,” said Hopperstead “but the state police fire marshal told us, when we were evacuated, that it was not a gas explosion. The fire marshal said they thoroughly checked every square inch of the apartment complex before they allowed us to come back and he said gas was not the cause.

Hopperstead said several of the apartment complex residents were taken to the hospital for respiratory problems. He said he thought that they were mostly shook up.

George Koontz, who lives in apartment 301 said, he heard and felt the explosion.

“I ran down in my bare feet to help him (Redepenny) out,” said Koontz. “It was just awful.”

Michael Murphy, who lives at 206, said the explosion shook him out of bed.

“It was so loud that I couldn’t figure out what was going on right away,” said Murphy. “Once I got outside I tried to help and I told another neighbor to call 911. It was a real miracle that Mr. Redepenny got out alive. He must have had the Lord on his side.”

Murphy said he was overwhelmed by the experience and he said he’s thankful that Redepenny is going to be OK.

At about 3 p.m., Hopperstead said that he had just received word that Redepenny burns weren’t as bad as he suspected and he said that he is going to be all right.

Matthew M. Pitzarella, communications and community relation’s representative for Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania said his company didn’t received any complaints from the area prior to the explosion.

“All of the utility companies have been called out, as a precautionary step said Pitzarella. “Unfortunately these kinds of things happen, but typically when there is a natural gas incident there aren’t flames and as you can see here everything has been burned or scorched which indicates that there was another cause.”

Mount Pleasant mayor and fire Chief Jerry Lucia said natural gas has not been ruled out as the cause of the explosion.

“The state police fire marshal is still sifting through the debris in order to come up with a cause of the explosion,” said Lucia. “We have ruled out Mr. Redepenny’s oxygen tank but we have not ruled out natural gas.”

Lucia said when firefighters arrived at the scene shortly after 7:30 a.m. everything in the house was a blaze.

“The outside walls of the house blew out so what was left in the structure was all a total blaze,” he said. “Mr. Redepenny had third degree burns on his back and second degree burns on his arms.”

Volunteer fire departments assisting Mount Pleasant were Norvelt, Scottdale, Bullskin, East Huntingdon, LVJ out of Greensburg, Youngwood and Pleasant Unity Tower. Medic 10 and Mutual Aid Ambulance services were also at the scene.

Lucia said firefighters had the fire out in about 25 minutes. He also asked that the public stay away from the area while the investigation is ongoing.

The state police fire marshal did not have a cause at press time.

Redepenny was listed in serious condition at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh last night.

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