More than 150 gallons of gasoline are found in a West Philadelphia home
"Everything’s hot. Everything’s dry. The potential was there for a major catastrophe," Chief Inspector Scott Small said on the scene.
Police on Monday found more than 150 gallons of gasoline stored in an abandoned home in West Philadelphia.
Shortly after 8 p.m., Philadelphia police found 154 one-gallon jugs of gasoline hoarded in the living room of an abandoned home on the 100 block of North 59th Street. Police investigated after the strong smell of gasoline wafted from the house.
Chief Inspector Scott Small said that with the amount of gasoline and the recent conditions from a particularly hot summer, a massive fire could have broken out at anytime.
“That much accelerant — that’s 154 gallons of gasoline — in a property that already caught fire. And it’s the summertime. Everything’s hot. Everything’s dry. The potential was there for a major catastrophe,” he said.
Late Tuesday morning, a fire at the house was quickly put under control by firefighters by around 10:30, the Philadelphia Fire Department posted on Twitter.
The same house had also caught fire in March, Small said. Police were talking to an unidentified 37-year-old who had lived at the house prior to the fire and he was being treated as a person of interest, he said.
No arrests have been made.