From gas odors to courtroom: Legal fight grows after deadly Bristol facility blast

💥A 3rd person has died following the Dec. 23 explosion in Bucks County

💥Four injured people have filed a lawsuit accusing PECO and the facility’s owner

💥The suit accuses them of 'overwhelming negligence' for not evacuating

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A third person has died because of the December explosion at a Bucks County nursing home.

An explosion rocked the Bristol Health and Rehabilitation Center on Dec. 23, killing employee Muthoni Nduthu, 52, and a patient whose identity has not been disclosed. Bristol Township Police Chief Charles Winik said 21 people were taken to five hospitals for treatment.

Winik said the Buck County Coroner's Office identified the third person on Monday as Patricia Mero, 66. A cause of death has not been determined. She was admitted to St. Mary's Medical Center initially for blunt force trauma to her chest.

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Lawsuit alleges failure to evacuate after reported gas leak

Four people have filed a lawsuit against utility PECO and the center’s new owner,  Saber Healthcare Group, claiming “overwhelming negligence" because the building was not evacuated upon reports of a gas leak, according to the law firm of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky.

The plantiffs, descibed as a critically injured resident who lost her motorized wheelchair, two healthcare aides, and an IT contractor. They are asking for the firm to "hold all those responsible accountable" for the explosion. All four plaintiffs are still receiving medical treatment for physical and emotional injuries, according to the suit.

"We will prove that there were failures in staffing, training and supervision, that basic facility life-safety training protocols were blatantly ignored or compromised, that the site was not immediately evacuated after several reports of noxious onsite gas leak odors long before the explosion, and that innocent lives – of residents, workers, and visitors including contractors – were callously put at risk," firm president Robert J. Mongeluzzi said in a statement.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages to be determined by a jury.

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