Strong odor ‘smacked you in the face’
Residents smelled gas for years near Pottstown home prior to explosion
The odor of gas that hit Brittney Pinson as she stepped out of a Pottstown duplex home in the middle of the night was so strong — “It smacked you
in the face,” she recalled — she knew she had to call authorities.
“It was intense,” said Pinson, recalling the moments just before 1 a.m. on Feb. 9, 2021, near Hale Street and Butler Avenue. “It made me feel sick to my stomach.”
Authorities received her call, made after she stepped out of 455 Hale St., at 12:58 a.m. Pinson saw fire and police units outside the duplex at 453-455 Hale St. a short time later.
About 15½ months later, on May 26, 2022, the duplex blew up.
The tremendous explosion that originated at 453 Hale on the Thursday evening before Memorial Day killed four children and an adult, hurled debris through walls of nearby homes and deeply scarred the psyche of a working-class community.
No explanation has been made public.
Both propane and natural gas were under scrutiny as possible causes in early June, Borough Fire Chief Frank Hand said at the time. Investigating agencies have said little in public since then.
But other, broader questions also plague residents: Why was the smell of gas frequently present over a period of years in their neighborhood, near the duplex? And why was nothing done to stop it?
The Morning Call interviewed 17 people, including Pinson, who said they smelled gas in the area in the weeks, months or years before May 26, often repeatedly.
There has been no public indication from investigators whether or not those odors were linked to the explosion.
The Morning Call learned the location and nature of Pinson’s report to authorities in Pottstown’s response to a newspaper Right-toKnow request. The newspaper’s attempts to get similar Montgomery County emergency dispatch records for a multiyear period have been unsuccessful.
A familiar odor
The 17 people included an ambulance company supervisor who lived next door to the ill-fated duplex, local residents who walked their dogs, a teenager who walked to school in the area, and even a former mayor who took strolls with her husband.
All became familiar with the odor. It often was concentrated at the intersection of Hale Street and Butler Avenue.
“I think almost every time I walked my dogs, I smelled it,” said Brittany Lilick, a homeowner on nearby Jefferson Avenue. Eunice Rome, a Jefferson Avenue resident for nearly 40 years, said, “Sometimes you would smell it really bad, and sometimes not at all.”
Gas service in the neighborhood is provided by PECO, a subsidiary of Exelon Corp.
Company spokesperson Greg Smore responded to written questions about persistent gas odors by referring to a previously issued statement. It did not address the long-term odors.
It said PECO has “not found evidence that our facilities caused this incident and we do not have any record that the 453 and 455 Hale Street properties have ever been served by PECO natural gas.”
An intact propane tank remained visible amid the rubble after the explosion. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported propane distributor Amerigas confirmed one of its tanks was at the home that exploded.
An AmeriGas spokeswoman, asked about the long-term gas odors, declined to answer “as this is still under investigation.” She referred other questions to the state Public Utility Commission, which oversees utility companies.
PUC on Wednesday indicated it could offer no updates.
About 10 days after the explosion, PECO was summoned to the neighborhood when a gas odor was reported near Hale and Jefferson streets, about a block from the blast site.
Crews excavated the street and carried out repairs.
“You could smell it, before they came,” said resident Johnny Corson, who lives near the intersection.
Many questions
Both natural gas and propane give off an odor because of an additive mixed with them for safety reasons.
Richard Kuprewicz, a Redmond, Washington, pipeline safety investigator and chemical engineer, said it is not unexpected that after an explosion of the sort that rocked Pottstown, many people recall smelling gas before it took place.
“It may indicate a problem, and it may not,” he said. “I am not downplaying those, but the smell of gas may not be related to this particular tragedy.”
What may be more important, Kuprewicz said, is how many people actually reported the odor to authorities before the explosion.
Among the 17 people interviewed by The Morning Call, at least four said they made calls.
Others said that although they did not report the smell, they were sure others did.
Former Mayor Sharon Thomas, whose second term ended in 2017, lived on Butler Avenue next door to the structure that exploded. Her home is a total loss.
She said she and her husband, Barry, walked through the intersection of Hale and Butler and sometimes smelled gas. Thomas said she saw other people make calls to authorities when they smelled gas.
Nonetheless, she said that during the four years that ended in 2017, gas odors “never came to the forefront as an issue” for her as mayor.
Tanya Johnson, a Butler Avenue resident, said she smelled gas more than once at the intersection.
“You could smell it in your car, and your windows didn’t have to be down,” Johnson said.
Stephen Leonetti and his fiancee, Rebecca Scott, lived on Butler Avenue close to Thomas. Both smelled gas and said they reported it.
Leonetti said damages to their home may total about $200,000. The lack of public statements by investigators, he said, has left the neighborhood on edge.
“It seems everybody cares more about PR than the fact that an entire community is in mourning and is scared,” he said.
Tandra Rambert, an operations supervisor for an ambulance company, said she feels, “frustration. Anger. The feeling of being neglected,” as the four-month anniversary of the disaster approaches.
Rambert, who lived at 461 Hale St. with her 20-year-old son until the explosion left it uninhabitable, said she started calling authorities about gas odors near Hale and Butler when her son was “a little boy.”
She guessed that she placed eight calls about the odors, over the years. Responses by authorities to the scene, she said, generally concluded with a message that could be summed up “It’s OK. Nothing’s wrong.”
Details missing
The Morning Call filed a Rightto-Know request with Montgomery County seeking “all 9-1-1 call activity for locations within the borough of Pottstown — including date, time, nature of call and dispatched units or equipment” for 2020, 2021 and the first six months of 2022.
The county issued a partial denial. It supplied lists of police calls that showed only call dates and times, dispatch times and arrival times, but not reasons for the calls and the nature of the incidents.
“The fact that they wouldn’t provide it in response to a Right-toKnow request is certainly inconsistent with the letter and intent of the Right-to-Know Law,” said Melissa Melewsky, an attorney for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. “There has to be a good reason to deny access. They haven’t provided one.”
The Morning Call has appealed the partial denial.
Pinson, who lives with her family in Limerick Township, Montgomery County, said she’s read Facebook posts from many people who smelled gas in the years before the explosion.
The most disturbing thing, she said, is that it took five deaths to bring about a focus on the problem.
“That doesn’t seem right to me,” Pinson said. “It shouldn’t take lost life for them to do something.”