Improper gas line may have led to fatal house explosion, mayor says

There was a smell of gas around the house that exploded in Elizabeth Wednesday, but no one notified the gas company or police to report it according to Elizabth Mayor Chris Bollwage.

A spokesman for Elizabethtown Gas also says the company wasn’t aware that a ground-floor area had been illegally converted into an apartment with gas and electric services that were off the books.

He said no one called authorities even though the people who lived there said they smelled gas.

Femi Brown, 24, died in the blast.

Two people, including an 11-year-old, were in critical condition with severe burns.

The gas company came out on Monday to restore the service for a new tenant, but the company’s employees discovered the service was already on, Bollwage said. But Brito said he had been at the property in the afternoon to collect rent but wasn’t there in the evening, according to the mayor. He described the blast as flattening the building “like a pancake”.

Bollwage said investigators discovered there were three stoves in the house, which has three levels – a ground floor, first floor and second floor.