The Allegheny County Fire Marshal said Saturday that all six victims of a Plum house explosion were in or near the house on Rustic Ridge Drive that was the initial structure destroyed a week ago.
A news release for the first time provided information on the location of the victims but did not identify the cause of the explosion that also caused a fire that destroyed two adjacent houses last Saturday morning.
Responding to media inquiries, the fire marshal said “the victims of this incident were all found on the same property. One victim was located outside of the garage area. Four victims were located inside of the basement level. One victim was located and rescued from the rear yard and transported to a trauma center. That sixth victim died a few days later.”
The statement did not identify the person outside the garage or in the rear yard. But previous reports said the person who was found in the yard and died later was Paul Oravitz, 56, the homeowner of 141 Rustic Ridge that exploded. Also killed were his wife, Heather Oravitz, 51; and neighbors Kevin Sebunia, 55; Michael Thomas, 57; Casey Clontz, 38, and his son, Keegan Clontz, 12.
Initial reports indicated a possible gas leak from a hot water tank, but Saturday’s release did not address a cause of the explosion.
It said three houses in the Rustic Ridge neighborhood will be torn down once released by the fire marshal. “A total of 10 homes are currently uninhabitable. This doesn’t mean that the houses will be torn down, it just means that property owners need to have a structural engineer analyze the structure to determine next steps.”
The release said the county fire marshal remains the lead investigator and will determine the origin and cause of the explosion, saying the process is often long and involved.
“Currently, the ACFM has deployed a systemic approach, identifying heat sources, first fuel ignited, and the act/circumstances that brought them all together. It is this stage of the investigation that the fire marshals are actively working on and following up on,” the release said.
It added that it continued to work with other agencies, including the state Department of Environmental Protection and Peoples Gas.
Also in response to inquiries, the release addressed other similar incidents in Plum:
“In the mid-1990s, an explosion on Regency Drive was determined to be caused by an individual in an attempted suicide. In 1996, a Regency Drive explosion was attributed to a gas leak. There was one fatality and one injury. In 2008, a Mardi Gras Drive explosion was determined to be contractor related. There was one fatality and one injury. An explosion in April 2022 on Hialeah Drive remains under investigation at this time. The home had five occupants with only minor injuries reported.
“ACFM has not seen any sign of these events being of a single source, or of the same origin or cause.”
First Published: August 19, 2023, 5:45 p.m.
Updated: August 19, 2023, 7:09 p.m.