SCRANTON -- Authorities in Scranton may have prevented an explosion. They went into an apartment Tuesday and found a propane tank on a hot stove.
There are so many ways that this situation in south Scranton could have gone wrong. It happened in a vacant apartment and now police are trying to figure out who broke into the apartment and why they plotted to blow it up.
What Scranton police and firefighters happened upon inside the vacant apartment wasn't ticking, it didn't have a timer, but it was most certainly a bomb.
A 20-pound propane tank was found heating up on a burning stove. Call it good training or good luck, firefighters were able to remove the tank before it blew.
Maureen Jones owns the house and was in the process of renting out the first floor.
"I can't imagine who would do something like that, you know? I mean, there's a girl who lives upstairs and if anything ever happened, she would have gotten killed, you know, so I don't understand why someone would do something like that," Jones said.
Detectives think the propane tank was stolen off a grill on the porch of the house next door. They think someone broke through the apartment through the window, and then set up the makeshift propane bomb. It was only a matter of time until an explosion.
Scranton's assistant fire chief says it could have been an hour or just seconds.
"It's a little bit scary, because they are going in. I mean, they're trained to deal with that situation but it could go as they're going in. So, luckily, the issue diffused and everything turned out well," said assistant chief Jeff White.
The apartment then became a crime scene. Detectives collected evidence inside and started trying to identify fingerprints on the broken window.
"Now the investigation's going to lead to who and why," said White.
The owner of the house says her upstairs tenant was on her way to work when she noticed the broken window, so no one was home when this all unfolded. And, perhaps only by luck, no one was hurt.
