Gas explosion shuts down school in Delaware County till Friday

HAVERFORD TWP., Pa. (WPVI) -- The Archdiocese of Philadelphia says repair work following a gas explosion at one of its schools in Delaware County will keep that school closed until Friday at the earliest.

The incident happened at 5:45 a.m. Monday at Ss. Colman-John Neumann School in the 300 block of Highland Lane in Haverford Township.

Fire officials tell Action News the explosion appears to have happened in the boiler room.

There were no injuries, but by 7 a.m., the homes of students' grades kindergarten through 8th were getting calls telling them school was cancelled for the day.

A structural engineer has been called in to assess the damage.

A day earlier, there were multiple activities at the school for students and parents.

Many students reflected on that.

"There was a book fair yesterday in the library. If it happened the day before, a lot of people could've gotten hurt by the explosion," 6th grader Kelsey Dunkel said.

"There was a sport mass for all the sports teams and then a book fair. I was talking to my friends this morning and I said, 'What if it would have happened if we were all there?'" 7th grader Matt McCabe said.

On Monday afternoon, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said both boilers will have to be replaced.

The archdiocese says the earliest possible day the school could reopen is Friday and that is no guaranteed.