Neighbor near fatal Plum house explosion can get house fixed but mourns loss of friends, wonders about the future
Andy Zarroli might be the first of nearly a dozen homeowners in Plum’s Rustic Ridge neighborhood to know his house can be repaired following the fatal house explosion two weeks ago.
But while his house can be fixed, he’s not sure if he and his wife can call it home again.
Zarroli and his wife, Stacie, lived at 138 Rustic Ridge Drive since 2008. They lived among friends and raised their two daughters and a son there.
Some of those friends were lost when the home of Paul and Heather Oravitz, diagonally across the street at 141 Rustic Ridge, blew up on the morning of Aug. 12. They and four others in the house at the time — Michael Thomas, Kevin Sebunia, and father-and-son Casey and Keegan Clontz — were killed.
The houses on either side — the Thomas house closer to Zarroli and the home of Harrison and Kelly Smith on the other side — also were destroyed.
Zarroli’s house is among 10 others that were so badly damaged they were declared uninhabitable.
A structural engineer determined Zarroli’s house can be repaired. But, walking through it Friday, Zarroli said he and his wife haven’t decided whether they’ll return.
“It’s going to be hard,” he said. “Can you imagine sleeping in this house?”
Zarroli, his wife and their son, Mark, 20, were home that Saturday morning, getting ready to leave. Their youngest, Mia, 18, was at a friend’s in Penn Hills. Their oldest, Olivia, 24, lives in Washington, D.C.
Zarroli was on a couch in the living room while his wife was outside on the back porch.
“It was a boring, hot, humid Saturday,” he said.
Zarroli said there was no warning before the blast hit, throwing him off the couch. Debris landed in the backyard near his wife.
“My first thought was it was a bomb,” he said.
The explosion’s force hit the left front corner of his house first and hardest, sending a shock wave through to the other side. It cracked walls, blew out windows and popped nails.
“My house moved,” Zarroli said.
That he finds damage on the opposite side of the house farthest away from the blast astounds Zarroli. Seeing that a living room window on the right wall is pushed out, he said, “I would not have thought that.”
Doug Hubner, an owner of Diamond Construction and Remodeling in Plum, will repair Zarroli’s house. He got a look at it along with the structural engineer.
“We walked through and he confirmed that the house is structurally sound, but there is a lot of cosmetic damage to it,” Hubner said.
Hubner said suction from the explosion first pulled the siding off the house, then the concussion blew out almost every window, the entry doors and the garage doors.
Despite that, he described most of the damage as cosmetic, such as plaster, drywall, cracks and popped nails. There’s also water damage from separated drain pipes.
Many doors will need to be rehung because they are sticking from the house moving.
“Basically, the whole house kind of moved from the concussion,” he said. “It causes things to move but not go back into place.”
Hubner said the side of the house facing the explosion, which took most of the concussion, will need to be stripped to look for framing damage. The roof and the foundation, however, appear to be intact.
Half of the basement, the half closest to the explosion, is fully underground.
Hubner said the Zarroli house isn’t as badly damaged as others in the vicinity because of where and how it sits.
“I think most of the blast went up and out. Because his house sits in a little bit of a valley, it didn’t take the brunt of the hit,” he said. “If you have to say anything about luck, he kind of lucked out as far as what his damage could be. It could be really a lot worse.”
Plum has yet to receive any applications for demolition of homes in Rustic Ridge, said David Soboslay, the borough’s interim manager.
“Most insurance companies have sent out structural engineers to make these assessments,” he said.
The borough also has not yet received any applications for alterations to any houses there.
“We don’t have a count but believe there are homes that can be repaired,” Soboslay said. “However, that could change if crews find further damage during construction.”
Soboslay said the borough is continuing to get calls from residents asking for an inspector to look at properties.
“This is ongoing, but it’s safe to say that most houses with minor damage remain habitable,” he said. “If a homeowner has damage to his or her house, the borough will send out an inspector. The homeowner should also contact his or her insurance company.”
The more Zarroli looked around his house Friday, the more damage he found, seeing some things for the first time.
“I guess I didn’t want to look too closely,” he said. “It’s incredible how much damage this did.”
Zarroli and his wife first lived in another house in Rustic Ridge. They moved to have a bigger home for their growing family.
“My wife and I put so much effort into this house. We raised three kids here,” he said. “It’s not going to be the same.”
Zarroli and his wife, with their Yorkie, Sophie, have been staying at a hotel in Monroeville. They’re looking for a long-term rental.
Since the explosion, Zarroli has struggled with understanding why it happened. His house, in many ways, is the least of his concerns.
“Everything here in my house can be replaced. It’s upsetting, but it pales in comparison to what everybody else is going through. It’s not equal at all,” he said. “There’s been so much pain. So many of my friends are gone.
“It’s disgusting talking about the house. More than anything else, for me the hardest pain is the six deaths.
“It’s been very hard to grasp all of that.”
Brian C. Rittmeyer is a TribLive reporter covering news in New Kensington, Arnold and Plum. A Pittsburgh native and graduate of Penn State University's Schreyer Honors College, Brian has been with the Trib since December 2000. He can be reached at brittmeyer@triblive.com.
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