Debra Duguid was standing in the driveway of her house on Wopowog Trail in Shelton Monday afternoon talking with her daughter when, she said, “everything went kaboom.”
Three men — two employees of a local gas company and a family friend — had been in the basement of the home when the blast, caused by a propane leak, occurred.
“All the glass came out, then I just felt this big heat,” Duguid said of the moments immediately after the explosion.
“Next thing I know one young kid came running out,” Duguid said, referring to Gary Henry, 24, one of the employees of Pioneer Gas and Appliance Co. “He was on fire. I started screaming.”
By that time several neighbors had rushed over, she said.
One of them kicked in a door at the rear of the house, where the two other men — Pioneer Gas employee Randy Fera and her friend, Luke Lauretti, 48, younger brother of Mayor Mark Lauretti — were able to get out, Duguid said.
“It was unbelievable,” she said of the men’s injuries. “No hair, no eyebrows. Their shirts were burnt. It was horrible.”
All three are being treated at Bridgeport Hospital’s burn center and remained in critical condition Tuesday, according to hospital spokesman John Cappiello.
Duguid spoke with the Valley Indy briefly Tuesday outside her home before meeting with a representative of her insurance company and investigators. Afterward, she declined to comment further.
The gas company employees were at the house Monday to install two new, 120-pound propane tanks there, Fire Marshal James Tortora said Tuesday.
After doing so and checking appliances in the house for leaks, Tortora said, “at some point they went into the house and smelled the gas and knew there was a leak somewhere.”
They eventually determined the source of the leak — a gas line in the basement that had been hooked up to an old dryer had been left open. They plugged it, then opened the house’s doors and windows to air the building out.
When they thought the threat had dissipated, Tortora said, they tried to light the pilot light of the hot water heater, prompting the explosion.
Tortora said investigators have not yet determined just how much propane was in the house at the time, or how long the men had waited for the gas to dissipate.
But he said the sheer magnitude of the blast was nothing like anything he’s seen in his career.
“The house was up in the air,” he said. “The house was up probably about three or four inches, out about three to four inches, most of the walls, then back down on the foundation.
“It cracked support beams in the basement, it cracked floor joists in half, it knocked support columns out, it knocked the foundation,” Tortora went on.
Despite the massive explosion, Tortora said there was “very little fire.”
“The force of the explosion caused the most damage,” he said. “A little surface burn, a little fire, but nothing major. The bulk of it was from the percussion of the blast.”
William Papale Jr., the owner of Pioneer Gas and Appliance Co., said Tuesday that Monday’s incident was a first for the company, which has been in business for about 70 years.
“Nothing like this has ever happened,” he said. “Safety’s our No. 1 concern, especially in this business.”
Asked if the two employees had meters to measure the amount of propane in the house, Papale said they did, but “for whatever reason” felt conditions were safe.
Papale said the company has been hit hard by the incident. He said he visited Fera last night at Bridgeport Hospital but couldn’t see Henry, who sustained more serious injuries.
“He was in good spirits,” Papale said of Fera.
“Everybody’s like family here,” Papale said of the company, which has 12 employees. “It’s tough to imagine what they’re going through.”
The state fire marshal’s office will be the primary agency investigating the cause of Monday’s blast. A spokesman for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said officials there will also be investigating.
Ted Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the federal Department of Labor, said Tuesday that officials from OSHA’s Bridgeport office “opened an inspection yesterday in response to the explosion in Shelton.”
“The purpose of OSHA’s inspection is to determine whether or not there were violations of workplace safety standards in this incident,” Fitzgerald said in an e‑mail.
“At this point, it’s too early to estimate a completion date for OSHA’s inspection,” Fitzgerald added.
He said OSHA inspections prompted by propane explosions are “infrequent,” and said Pioneer has no record of violations or investigations.
