Crescent Township house explosion: Local business owner felt blast, drove toward the area to help

CRESCENT TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A local business owner felt the blast from Tuesday morning’s house explosion in Crescent Township and headed over to help.

⇒ SEE PHOTOS FROM THE SCENE

John Bundy owns USA Pan, a local family business. Their factory along McGovern Boulevard in Crescent Township is across the street from Riverview Road, separated by a large hillside.

>> ‘Complete devastation’: 2 killed in Crescent Township house explosion

He says the blast was so strong that people inside the factory thought there was an explosion inside and started to run out. He says he even thought a truck might have struck the building.

Bundy says when he went outside, he saw his nephew’s eyes focused across the street. Over the hillside, he says he saw a mushroom cloud of thick, black, smoke.

“The force of that sound being that close, the best way to put it is it was like a sonic boom,” Bundy said. “It was a force.”

Surveillance video from the business captured the moment of the explosion. It was 8:52 a.m. when you could see two massive fireballs rise into the air. Then a plume of black smoke hangs in the atmosphere just over the hillside.

Drone 11 over deadly Crescent Township house explosion

“We jumped in the truck and ran up there,” Bundy added. “There were two other gentlemen who came across the street who lived up there and it was just like a disaster area. It was what you’d picture - a huge bomb that blew everything to pieces. 100 yards away, there were 2x4s splintered and plywood in the trees. The best way to say it, it was like pick up sticks.”

Bundy says the real hero in this was a volunteer who ran into the fire with a first aid pack, yelling for survivors and putting the lives of others before his own.

“I looked over and saw a woman with all of her windows blown out in the back of her house,” Bundy added. “She came out with a baby and sure enough, she was confused and that’s when she said, ‘My parents lived there.’ We went over to console her. It was a really hard thing to see.”

We now know two people lost their lives.

The victims have not been identified publicly. That information will come from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

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