A Lancaster County storage building exploded Wednesday morning in southern Pennsylvania, damaging a township building and nearly a dozen nearby homes. An emergency dispatcher, the blast occurred 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.
Debris ‘like Somebody Dropped a Bomb’
At around 9 a.m. ET, the Lancaster County Emergency Management Agency reported that at least ten structures near the business had been damaged by flying debris.
Rapho Township Supervisor Jere Swarr said the exploded shop building had been used to store snow ploughs, dump trucks, and other road maintenance equipment. He claimed six workers had entered the building moments before the explosion but had forgotten to turn on the power.
“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.
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He said after the blast-
“It looks like it got an overhead hit from a bomb, I’m told people felt or heard it about 6 or 7 miles away. We have no equipment left − not even a road sign. But we’ve had an outpouring of help from neighbours this morning.”
“Thankfully, he didn’t turn that light switch on,” Swarr said, referring to the worker who smelled the propane. “We could have had six fatalities. Instead, we have a hero.”
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