Man held on drug, manslaughter charges in house blast

A 53-year-old San Francisco man was arrested Friday on manslaughter and narcotics manufacturing charges related to a San Francisco house explosion Thursday that killed a woman, San Francisco police said.

The suspect, identified as Darron Price, was arrested around 4:30 p.m. Friday on Newhall Street and booked him on two counts of child endangerment, involuntary manslaughter and manufacturing phencyclidine, known as PCP, according to jail records.

The blast and fire erupted at about 9:20 a.m. Thursday at a home on the 1700 block of 22nd Avenue, between Moraga and Noriega streets. About 100 firefighters rushed to the scene as flames engulfed the house, trapping and killing a woman inside and leveling the structure.

Officials have not yet released the identity of the person killed in the fire or any information about her connection to Price.

The child endangerment charges were related to two children who also lived in in the home, police said Saturday, and who were put at risk by the illegal drug manufacturing. Police could not say whether the children, who were not home at the time of the explosion, were related to Price or to the woman who was killed. Information on their current whereabouts was not known.

Investigators removed barrels, cylinders and 50-gallon drums from the blackened debris Friday morning, and investigators from the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the probe. Capt. Jonathan Baxter, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department, said some barrels contained unspecified liquids.

Fire officials said the cause of the blaze is still under investigation and may be for months.

Joel Engardio, a San Francisco supervisor who represents the Sunset District, released a statement Friday evening saying that he was planning to hold a town hall for the residents of 22nd Avenue to offer resources in order to heal from the tragedy.

“Dangerous manufacturing of drugs that blows up a house and causes death and mayhem in a neighborhood is as serious as dealing deadly fentanyl in an open air drug market,” Engardio said. “Both crimes should be prosecuted in San Francisco.”