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Four people dead and two unaccounted for in Pottstown home explosion

Two people were transported to the hospital and two others were unaccounted for Thursday night, officials said.

Firefighters, EMS, ATF and police on the scene of a house explosion on Washington Street in Pottstown on Thursday. A car covered in debris next to where the once stood.
Firefighters, EMS, ATF and police on the scene of a house explosion on Washington Street in Pottstown on Thursday. A car covered in debris next to where the once stood.Read moreSTEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer
    by Rita Giordano
    Updated 
    Published 

» LIVE UPDATES: Follow along here for the latest developments on the house explosion

A house explosion killed four people in Pottstown on Thursday evening, officials said, and two people remained unaccounted for as officials searched through debris from the destroyed home.

Pottstown Borough Manager Justin Keller said officials responded to a home at Washington Street and Butler Avenue in Pottstown just after 8 p.m. Thursday and found that it had been destroyed in an explosion.

Officials found four people dead, Keller said, and transported two others to area hospitals. Two more people were potentially still missing.

Debris was strewn around the area, according to photos of the scene. The residential neighborhood is a few blocks away from Pottstown High School.

It was not clear Thursday evening what had caused the explosion or how many homes had been damaged. Keller declined to take questions from reporters gathered near the scene and said officials would next provide an update Friday afternoon.

In a statement issued last night, Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriquez said schools will be closed Friday for students and staff, and he urged residents to avoid the area if possible.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to those families,” he said, noting counselors will be available when schools reopen.

Keller said residents who were displaced by the explosion could go to Pottstown High School, where the Red Cross and the borough would assist them.

Pottstown police and fire officials were still at the scene late Thursday evening, along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Pennsylvania State Police. Keller said the investigation was ongoing.

Residents on the scene reported hearing the loud noise and feeling the explosion, and others took to social media to describe the blast. It “felt like a sumo wrestler jumped and fell over in our kitchen,” one man wrote on Twitter.

Other residents told television news reporters at the scene that they also felt the explosion blocks away.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Staff writer Kristen Graham contributed reporting.