community sues – On the fourth anniversary of the May 26, 2022 explosion on Hale St. in Pottstown, grieving neighbors and a local community are suing PECO—still without an official explanation for how the blast killed four children and their grandmother. While the Pennsylvania
For four years, the people who live across from the damaged house on Hale St. have woken up with the same question: what happened, and why did it happen?
Tuesday marked the fourth anniversary of a deadly house explosion in Montgomery County that killed four children and their grandmother. The victims were identified as 67-year-old Francine White. 13-year-old Alana Wood. 12-year-old Jeremiah White. 10-year-old Nehemiah White. and 8-year-old Tristan White.
Stan Banks lives right across from the site. He was home on May 26, 2022, when he heard the explosion and ran outside. He found two young victims in the street.
“It still bothers me,” Banks said.
“I checked for a pulse, and I couldn’t get a pulse from either one of them,” he said.
Four years later, Banks and others in the neighborhood still do not have an official explanation of how the explosion happened.
The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms said in a statement, “We have not completed our investigation yet. We are awaiting results of further testing at the site.”
As the investigation remains open, the lawsuit has become the community’s next push for answers. Several homeowners in the neighborhood are now suing PECO for damages.
Banks said he believes there were warning signs before the blast.
“We had been smelling gas for a couple years I guess, but PECO would come out and say it wasn’t their line,” he said.
Pottstown Mayor Stephanie Henrick said Banks is on to something.
“I’m fairly sure the cause was natural gas,” Henrick said. “If it wasn’t PECO, what are the other options we’re looking at?”
The legal dispute lands in a backdrop of findings that have not ended the community’s uncertainty. In 2023, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said its investigation found “no evidence that public utility natural gas service contributed to that deadly event.”
PECO, in a statement to 69 News, said in part: “We agree with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s conclusion, which found no evidence that public utility natural gas service contributed to this incident… Therefore, PECO is vigorously defending itself in the lawsuit.”
Even as those conclusions are being cited, the physical site itself remains scarred. The house that was destroyed still sits damaged and undeveloped—an open wound the community is still waiting to heal.
“They would like to have closure as to what happened, why it happened. They lost their whole family,” Banks said.
Henrick echoed the frustration that has grown from living with unanswered grief.
“It seems like it shouldn’t be this hard to get an answer,” she said.
What stands out now is the distance between the word “no evidence” and the reality neighbors say they can’t move past: a fatal blast with no definitive explanation. a continuing investigation. and a lawsuit that reflects the same demand—clear accountability—one that the community says it has been waiting years to receive.
Pottstown PECO Hale St. explosion Francine White Alana Wood Jeremiah White Nehemiah White Tristan White Montgomery County lawsuit Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission ATF investigation natural gas
Still no explanation?? That’s wild. Gas company needs to answer like yesterday.
I don’t get how they can say “waiting on testing” for four years. Meanwhile families are just supposed to live with that. PECO should’ve been held accountable already.
Mayor says it was natural gas but the ATF is “not completed” so like… which is it? Also if neighbors smelled gas for years and PECO said it wasn’t their line, then was it just “not their line” but still their fault? Idk.
This is so heartbreaking. I grew up in the area and everyone talks about Hale St like it’s cursed or something, but really it’s probably paperwork and lawsuits slowing things down. If PECO kept dismissing people who smelled gas, then how is that “unexplained.”