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A fatal house fire in East Pennsboro Township on Saturday night involved what neighbors described as an explosion that reverberated throughout the area and engulfed the home near-instantaneously.
Fire crews were dispatched to the blaze at 8:13 p.m., according to the Cumberland County Department of Public Safety — but as they were arriving, a massive concussion shook the neighborhood, residents told PennLive.
Frank Spadea, who lives diagonally across from the home that burned on the 1000 block of Country Club Road, said he looked out his window and saw the fire at his neighbor’s house. Fire trucks were already on their way, Spadea said, but as they drove up the street, an explosion shot a plume of flame all the way from a ground-floor back room up to the treetops.
“I no sooner saw the flames than the trucks started rolling in,” Spadea said. “I went out onto my driveway, and ‘boom.’”
The Cumberland County coroner identified Adnan Bakr Zawawi, age 76, as having died in the incident. Zawawi had moved into the home relatively recently with his daughter, neighbors said; he was said to be in poor health, and his daughter was his caretaker.
Zawawi’s home is located at the corner of Country Club Road and Cherish Drive, in a neighborhood that consists of large single-family homes and some rows of upscale townhouses.
Several neighbors said the explosion was so thunderous that it sounded like it was in their own backyards. One resident said he thought the propane grill on his porch had exploded, despite living on the cul-de-sac far down the street from Zawawi’s home.
“We were downstairs and we heard it in our basement,” said resident Dixie Shambaugh.
Bill and Melanie Balchunas said they had seen police racing up the street moments before they heard the explosion. Bill pulled on his coat and ran outside to find the Zawawi residence covered in flames, and fire trucks pulling up.
“What I saw was a wall of flame, it was huge,” Bill said. “You couldn’t see the house, it was just a wall of fire.”
The back room where Spadea said he saw the explosion is almost completely obliterated, with the roof reduced to a single charred truss. Flames had also burned through the roofs and walls on the second-story front sections of the house.
Fire officials previously told PennLive that the fire took roughly 45 minutes to bring under control; two firefighters required medical attention, and one was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“God bless the people that do this,” Spadea said, praising the fast work of local volunteer fire crews.
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