Officials demolish house where explosion occurred

A girl was slightly injured while walking past the house.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- One day after a natural gas explosion of undetermined origin rocked a Mercer Street neighborhood, officials had a house torn down to prevent further injuries.
Investigators from the Warren Fire Department, workers from Dominion East Ohio Gas and insurance representatives focused their attention on the gas lines running from the street to the house at 844 Mercer Ave. N.E., where an explosion about 2:30 p.m. destroyed the unoccupied house and damaged the two adjacent homes.
Marc Titus, Warren fire investigator, said the explosion was caused by natural gas, but the department didn't know yet whether the explosion was accidental and didn't know the cause of the gas leak or the source of ignition.
He said the home did have an operating hot water heater, which is being checked. The front part of the house incurred the majority of fire damage. Insurance and fire investigators removed sections of the gas line inside and outside the house for analysis.
The only reported injury was to Kimberly Barnett of 204 Atlantic St., who said she was walking in the street in front of the house on her way to a baby-sitting job when the explosion occurred. She suffered cuts on her legs from flying glass.
"I saw a flicker like fire, and I looked at it, and it [the house] just exploded. I saw flames come out of the window and go to the roof," she said. An ambulance worker checked Barnett at the scene, but she did not require hospitalization.
James McElrath, who lives in the Atlantic Street home adjacent to 844 Mercer with Barnett and her mother, Heidi Wilkinson, said he started smelling gas in the neighborhood around 12:30 or 1 p.m. while he and a friend were putting up fencing around the Atlantic Street house.
He called Dominion East Ohio Gas about the problem about 2 p.m., he said.
Demolition order
Chris Taneyhill, Warren's building official, said the city ordered the building taken down Thursday so that children in the area would not get hurt in the wreckage.
The two-story house was barely standing as it was, Titus said, and could fall in at any time.
The Atlantic Street house had damage to its garage, and the house on the other side of 844 Mercer also had damage to windows and walls.
Cynthia Stambolia-Creak of 836 Mercer said she was sitting in her living room when the explosion occurred. She suffered cuts and bruises, she said, but did not seek medical treatment.
The house that exploded is owned by Robert J. and Susan C. Stahl, county records show.
runyan@vindy.com