The death toll from the massive explosion that obliterated a Pottstown, Pennsylvania, home has risen from four to five, with two people injured in the hospital.
Pottstown Borough Manager Justin Keller confirmed the additional fatality at a Friday news conference, after investigators spent the morning sifting through the chaotic blast scene. Everyone that was previously missing has been accounted for as of Friday at noon, Keller said.
One of the two people injured remains in critical but stable condition at a local trauma center, while the other is undergoing surgery, he added.
Officials have yet to release the identities of the victims. Keller said the investigation into the cause of the blast remains ongoing and could not provide more details.
The property that exploded on Hale Street in Pottstown on Thursday night was a twin home with two single-family units, according to property records and the local fire commissioner.
According to a fire official on scene Friday, both units were destroyed by the massive blast, but it wasn’t clear from which unit the blast originated.
In his many years as a firefighter, Pottstown Fire Chief Frank Hand said the explosion was one of the worst he’d seen.
