Editorial: People of Plum deserve honesty, transparency in explosion investigation
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The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is investigating the explosion on Rustic Ridge Drive in Plum that claimed the lives of six people and destroyed three homes, damaging others.
It should. This is a scary proposition for more than people on one loop of one development in one municipality.
It’s the kind of sudden and unpredictable event that can be a boogeyman to anyone until it is explained. Even after it is identified, it needs to be mitigated. Until that happens, the fear is hard to abate.
Peoples Natural Gas won’t say if there were reports of telltale odors in the neighborhood days before the explosion.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to share any information on that front, because this is all still under investigation by the (Allegheny County) Fire Marshal,” spokesman Nick Paradise said.
They should share. If the answer is no, it might give more comfort or confidence to all those Plum residents with gas lines fueling their dryers and heaters.
The lack of answers to questions of “how did this happen?” and “will it happen again?” is a frustration that builds each time this happens, and it has become too common.
It happened on Hialeah Drive in 2022 with just minor injuries but a total loss of the home. It happened in 2008 on Mardi Gras Drive. It happened twice more in the 1990s.
Emergency Services Chief Matt Brown is the county’s chief fire marshal. He said Thursday there are no links among the five explosions.
There is one obvious link. They all happened in Plum.
The scope of the Rustic Ridge explosion is drawing attention, the same way the East Palestine train derailment drew state and national attention to issues of rail safety and its ecological impacts.
An explosion is not like a fire in that it is an unfortunate event that happens periodically. If cars explode, they are recalled until the problem is corrected.
It is possible for all of these events to be unrelated. But when Rustic Ridge is just beginning to be investigated and the report on Hialeah Drive is still not completed after a year, it seems early to suggest there aren’t any common threads.
The authorities might want to reassure people about what is happening. They want people to feel safe. That is understandable.
But people are worried about their lives and their kids. They need real answers, and if those are going to take time, they need honest assessments in the meantime.