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New Jersey explosion kills one, injures seven

New Jersey explosion: Twenty or more homes remained uninhabitable Wednesday at a town house development where a gas leak led to an explosion a day earlier.

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Penny Ray/The Trentonian/AP
Firefighters work at the scene after an explosion at a townhouse complex Tuesday, March 4, 2014, in Ewing, N.J.
  • By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI Associated Press
  • GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press

| Ewing, N.J.

Twenty or more homes remained uninhabitable Wednesday at a town house development where a gas leak led to an explosion a day earlier, killing one person and injuring seven workers, as authorities sought to establish the ignition point but said they may never be able to do so.

Police said an autopsy was underway on a woman whose body was discovered on a car near the site of the explosion, and until it was complete they would not identify her.

Mayor Bert Steinmann said the gas line that was damaged by a contractor for Public Service Electric & Gas was marked out and investigators don't yet know what went wrong, and that it's possible they will never be able to identify the point of ignition.

PSE&G had said that its crews were working on repairs Tuesday following the report of the damage when the explosion happened. The company said Wednesday it would have no further comment until the investigation is complete.

"We don't know yet what caused this accident," the company said in a statement.

It was not clear if the woman who was killed was inside or outside a residence when the explosion occurred. No one else was believed to be missing.

Authorities have said at least 55 units at the development received some kind of damage.

The development remained littered Wednesday with shingles and plywood and clumps of insulation were clustered in trees.

Blue Bell, Pa.-based Henkels & McCoy, the private contractor that had been working at the site, was replacing electric service to a house that was leveled in the blast, PSE&G had said. Though the damage to the pipeline caused a gas leak, the pipeline itself did not explode, the utility said.

The mayor said residents of the homes deemed uninhabitable would be allowed to return to retrieve medicines and other belongings.

Some of the displaced were being sheltered at a fire house, while others were staying with family and friends.

The seven people injured were all PSE&G workers.

Jayne O'Conner, a spokeswoman for Capital Regional Medical Center in Trenton, said four victims were admitted but none was in critical condition.

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