Probe continues into cause of house explosion

WARREN -- City fire investigators continue to work with Dominion East Ohio Gas Co. to investigate the cause of a house explosion last Saturday at 471 Oriole Place S.W. that destroyed the house and damaged other houses and cars.
Fire Chief Ken Nussle said the gas company has taken natural gas pipes from the house to try to determine whether the pipes were tampered with. He said this may help determine whether the explosion occurred by accident or on purpose.
Randy Stelk, lead investigator, said the pipe analysis will take two to three weeks.
Nussle said no copper pipes were missing from the house at Oriole Place, so theft of pipes was apparently not involved in this explosion, as it was in the explosion that destroyed a house on Mercer Avenue Northeast a month earlier. Two men were charged with burglary in that case.
Nussle said his department has learned that the person who was renting the house had been evicted the Tuesday before the explosion and had been moving out his belongings, including appliances, the rest of that week. The man said he had finished moving out Friday at 5 p.m. The explosion occurred the next morning.
Fire investigators didn't know whether anyone was in the house at the time of the explosion, so a dog trained to find people was on the scene, but the former tenant arrived at the scene about 30 minutes into the search, Nussle said.