A Lancaster County storage building exploded Wednesday morning in southern Pennsylvania damaging a township building and nearly a dozen nearby homes.
According to an emergency dispatcher, the blast took place at the Rapho Township Public Works building next to the township administrative office building on North Colebrook Road.
Brad Wolf, a supervisor with Lancaster County 911, said Mastersonville Fire Company crews were dispatched to the building at 5:49 a.m. ET after a worker reported a propane heater leaking the in the building.
Just before 6 a.m., Wolf said, the blast took place.
“Miraculously no one was injured,” Wolf told USA TODAY.
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Flying debris ‘like somebody dropped a bomb’
As of about 9 a.m. ET, at least 10 buildings surrounding the shop had sustained damage from flying debris including the township office building, Lancaster County’s Emergency Management Agency reported.
The shop building that exploded housed snow plows, dump trucks and other equipment used to maintain roads, Rapho Township Supervisor Jere Swarr told USA TODAY.
Before the blast, he said, six workers arrived at the building, walked inside, but did not turn on the lights.
“One of the workers smelled propane and noticed a heater had fallen out of the ceiling,” Swarr said. “They all ran and it went (off).”
Like ‘an overhead hit from a bomb’
Swarr said the building is a total loss.
“It looks like it got an overhead hit from a bomb” he said after the blast. “I’m told people felt or heard it about 6 or 7 miles away. We have absolutely no equipment left − not even a road sign. But we’ve had an outpouring of help from neighbors this morning.”
“Thankfully he didn’t turn that light switch on,” Swarr said, referring to the worker who smelled the propone. “We could have had six fatalities. Instead we have a hero.”
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Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.
