"ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A thunderous gas explosion devastated a row-house neighborhood, killing five people, and suspicion fell on an 83-year-old cast-iron gas main.
The fiery blast was the latest natural-gas disaster to raise questions about the safety of the nation's aging, 2.5-million-mile network of gas and liquid pipelines.
The explosion, which flattened a pair of row houses and set fire to a block of homes late Wednesday, occurred in an area where the underground gas main lacked shut-off valves.
It took utility workers five hours of toil in the freezing cold to punch through ice, asphalt and concrete and seal the 12-inch main with foam, cutting off the flow of gas that fed the raging flames.
Dorothy Yanett, 65, said she was in her living room with her husband awaiting the evening news on TV when she heard a series of booms.
'Everything falling and crashing, glass, just a nightmare,' she said. 'There was no odor, there was no smell. Then it was like all hell broke loose.'
Nation & World | Five killed in Pennsylvania natural-gas explosion | Seattle Times Newspaper:
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