Staff writer
ROSCOE – Carrie Masten and her daughter, Linda Mudry, were inside her home in Lazy D Mobile Estates Friday evening when an overpowering odor of gas drove them onto the porch.
Moments later, a gas line exploded and destroyed the mobile home on Horseshoe Drive, injuring a firefighter and leaving the mother and daughter unharmed except for singed hair.
“This is not what I planned today,” the 91-year-old Masten joked good-naturedly. “I’m fine, all but my feelings.”
The explosion occurred at 5:34 p.m. when a worker who was attempting to repair a water line leak underneath Masten’s mobile home accidentally struck a gas line with a tractor.
“You couldn’t smell anything but gas, so my daughter and I went outside onto the porch to look at plants,” Masten said.
The force of the explosion threw Masten and Mudry against the railing.
“It was a force unlike anything I’ve ever felt before,” said Mudry, who lives nearby in Roscoe.
The worker who was operating the tractor ran onto the porch and carried Masten away from the blast, neighbors said.
Rick Gazi, who lives in a mobile home directly behind Masten’s, said he and family members went inside when they smelled gas. He and attempted to call 911 when the explosion happened.
“I pushed the ‘9’ and the house literally blew up. In unison, we all screamed, ‘Carrie,’” he said. “In a matter of seconds, the house just literally exploded. All you could see was orange.”
He ran outside, where Mudry told him her mother was safe.
“She’s a lucky lady,” said Gazi, whose home was damaged.
Roscoe Fire Department chief Todd Mauk said firefighters responded to a report of a gas odor and were at the scene for about three minutes when the explosion occurred.
An injured firefighter was taken by ambulance to Mon Valley Hospital, where he was treated for flash burns and released, Mauk said.
Firefighters from Roscoe, Stockdale, California and Allenport fire departments scrambled to knock down the fire and prevent other mobile homes in the 34-home trailer park from catching fire.
“I’m just glad everyone’s safe,” said Sandy Davis, who owns the park with her husband, Chuck. “Carrie’s safety was my first concern. Homes can be replaced, people can’t. And I can’t say enough for our firemen. We’ve got a good bunch of guys.”
Bethany Burtyk, manager of communication and media relations for Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, confirmed that a contractor hit a main gas line, which caused a fire. The gas will not be turned on until repairs to the line are completed.
It is not known how long it will take to repair the line, she said.
Davis said residents of the mobile home park are close-knit, and many have been neighbors for nearly three decades.
They rallied around Masten Friday night, bringing her cookies and soft drinks and offering hugs, kisses and kind words while she sat inside a police car as firefighters worked amid charred rubble and lingering smoke.
Friends and neighbors also pitched in to attempt to rescue some personal belongings including water-soaked photo albums and scrapbooks, which they put on the back of a police car to dry out.
“My mom’s ok, and my sister is ok, and that’s the important thing,” said Masten’s son, John, of North Huntington. “The first call I got, all I heard was that there was a gas line explosion and my mom’s house blew up. I didn’t know for the next 10 minutes if she was all right.”