Steve Swift, a maintenance manager for Factoryville, PA, died in a January 30 explosion that occurred while he was working. Swift, who was 43, was operating a New Holland skid steer during a controlled burn of a rubbish pile when something set off an explosion.
The fire marshall is working to discover the source of the blast which was so forceful it blew pieces of metal off of the Township Building 50 yards away. Swift was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m.
Attendees of a basketball game at an elementary basketball game, a mile away, told local media they heard the blast. “We heard a big boom that shook the building, and thought that maybe a car had hit the building or something like that, but everything on the exterior looked fine. Then one of the parents picking one of the kids up from the gym said they had seen a fireball in the sky about a mile away,” Jerry Stuffle, a school maintenance employee told The Times-Tribune.
Source:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/explosion-kills-municipal-employee-in-wyoming-county-1.2148453