Nicetown residents concerned after second explosion in neighborhood by Leland Pinder, June 30, 2025, ABC action News
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — There was another explosion in Philadelphia’s Nicetown section on Monday, the second in the area in as many days.
Surveillance video captured a massive fireball around 1:30 p.m. at David Geppert Recycling on Pulaski Avenue.
It was a distressing coincidence for neighbors after a fatal blast leveled multiple homes and damaged others a half mile away on Sunday morning.
One resident says windows on his home were shattered by the blast on Monday. Captain Daniel McCarty with the Philadelphia Fire Department confirms that a propane tank exploded at the recycling facility. Crews responded and were able to extinguish the flames quickly.
No injuries were reported in Monday’s incident.
Action News reached out to the recycling company and was told it was a small fire, with no further explanation on how it happened.
“Money is small. We can always fix things, but there should be some type of concern from the company,” one resident said.
Right now, there’s a heightened sense of alarm in Nicetown if something happens again.
“It could take out the whole neighborhood. We have kids running around here. It’s a playground right there,” said Daniella Holmes.
“Prayerfully, thank God nobody got hurt,” Holmes added.
Heavy equipment worked to clear rubble as investigators from the ATF were back on West Bristol Street after an unexplained explosion Sunday killed a woman and injured two others.
“We need to find out exactly what happened. We know all of the details, all of the facts are not in yet,” said Councilmember Cindy Bass.
One of the injured was a well-known, longtime city council staffer who is currently hospitalized in critical condition, Bass said. City agencies and the Red Cross were on scene Monday, working to help those affected.
“We’re trying to make sure that lives go back to normal as quickly as possible,” Bass said.
Gas caused deadly Nicetown home explosion, fire officials say; exact origin remains uncertain, The June 29 blast on West Bristol Street killed one person and hospitalized two others by Jaden George and Michelle Myers, July 8, 2025, The Philadelphia Inquirer
A gas fire “of uncertain origin” caused the June 29 explosion that killed one person, hospitalized two others, and displaced residents of several nearby rowhouses in Nicetown, the Philadelphia Fire Department said Tuesday.
The fire marshal’s office was unable to identify a specific cause, spokesperson Rachel Cunningham said in an email, adding, “It can often be difficult to pinpoint a cause with this kind of damage.”
The woman who died in the collapse was in her 60s. Two women, ages 63 and 82, living in an adjacent house were taken to Temple University Hospital with burns and smoke inhalation.
Vincent Thompson, a spokesperson for City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, noted after the blast that one of the hospitalized residents was a staffer in Johnson’s office, having worked as an administrator through “many Council presidents” over the decades.
Fire Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson warned last week that finding a cause of the blast that rocked the 1900 block of West Bristol Street could take time: The fire and explosion left a charred, rubble-filled crater where the three-story house once stood and leveled at least two others in the immediate area. And the site was both dangerous and difficult for rescue crews working in the area on foot. The fire department enlisted specialized dogs in search, rescue, and recovery efforts, as well as its attempts to find a cause for the collapse.
Many of those displaced have since returned home, and a temporary power shutoff allowing rescue crews to work safely ended within days. But the extent of the wreckage challenged efforts to produce a detailed account of what unfolded in and around the home before it fell down.
Both Peco and Philadelphia Gas Works said the destruction could not be traced to their own infrastructure. But that did not rule out issues with appliances or inside piping that would fall outside the companies’ purview.
Refer also to:
A few days later: Four USA fascist states reclassify deadly methane as green by law, enabling polluters to apply for clean energy subsidies.