‘It’s just a miracle’

Matt Tarulli was hanging around watching television in his second floor apartment when he fell through the floor.

“It was just like a regular day,” said Tarulli, 19, a junior at Stonehill College

Tarulli, a Stonehill football player, and his roommate, Rob Gilbreth, rented one of the apartments at 39 Jenny Lind Street destroyed in an explosion and fire Monday, Sept. 10.

Neighbors in the Seaver Street area were evacuated from their homes, and power to hundreds of homes was shut off after two explosions completely leveled the house on the corner of Jenny Lind and Seaver streets.

 Several area fire departments and the Easton police responded to the scene at 11:09 a.m. after a detail officer working at the scene reported the home exploded. Six Stonehill College students rented the apartments.

Easton Deputy Police Chief Allen Krajcik said the other injured students in the explosion were Nicholas Balsamo, 21, John Hurley, 21, and Daniel Kavanaugh, 21. All three were treated and released from Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton Monday afternoon.

Bay State gas company worker John R. Kelly was also injured and Dudley Folan, who was working for subcontractor Devco was injured. The two other Stonehill students who lived in the house were not home at the time.

Kelly was reported in serious condition at Mass General Hospital Wednesday. Folan was released from Brigham and Women's Hospital Thursday morning, a hospital spokesperson said.

Tarulli said he noticed workers in front of the house working on the gas lines when he woke up in the morning.

“All of the sudden I heard an explosion and saw it and I just dropped and hit the floor,” Tarulli said at a press conference Tuesday morning.

He said he never lost consciousness and got out of the house as fast as he could.

Gilbreth said he was at the gym at the time of the explosion, but came back when he heard what happened.

“I was throwing things off of me,” Tarulli said.

Tarulli said he suffered scrapes, punctures, and lacerations and has to walk with a cane temporarily because his back hurts and he has a serious cut on his left foot. He said he was discharged from Brigham and Women’s Hospital Monday night.  

“It was just a miracle,” Tarulli said.

Both selectmen Chairman Colleen Corona and Krajcik said there has been ongoing work to the gas lines in the Seaver Street area since the spring. Krajcik said workers were using a backhoe in front of the house when the explosion occurred. Neighbors said the road was blocked off Monday morning before the fire so crews could work on the gas lines.

“They were installing service to that home when the explosion occurred,” Krajcik said.

The home of Paul and Kristin Bello was also seriously damaged in the blaze. Corona said she was not sure how long the Bello family would be displaced from their home, but said she knew they were not able to stay in their home Monday night. The Bellos own Chili Head BBQ Co. in West Bridgewater.

“That restaurant and that family contribute a lot to the community,” Corona said.

Tarulli said he thought the other three students were sleeping in their apartment at the time of the explosion.

After the first explosion, he said he was lying on the ground and saw construction workers from a house across the street running toward the explosion. Tarulli said the workers helped pull him out of the rubble; everyone got out of the house before the second explosion engulfed the home in flames.

“Everything I own is completely gone. I don’t have anything right now,” Tarulli said.

Stonehill College has provided the six students with on campus housing, new laptops, books and a $500 gift certificate to the South Shore Plaza, Tarulli said.

“They have been so supportive,” Tarulli said.

He also thanked his teammates and coach for supporting him at the hospital.

Tarulli’s parents, Bart and Maryann, drove from New Jersey yesterday after Tarulli called his mother on a neighbor’s cell phone.

“I just heard the trauma in his voice and I just kept saying what’s the matter,” Maryann Tarulli said. “All I have to say is thank God for my son. It’s good to put my arms around him.”

Krajcik said he had no idea how everyone got out, but said they were all very lucky.

“They were very fortunate,” Krajcik said. “The home was fully engulfed in flames when we got there.”

The Tarulli family said they went back to the house after Matt Tarulli was discharged from the hospital and said they could not understand how everyone got out alive.

“I was just in awe of what was left there,” Bart Tarulli said.

Officer Lonnie Ataman was transported to the hospital with a dog bite after he evacuated a home and detail officer Leonard Coe was sent to the hospital to get his back checked after he was thrown off of his feet, Krajcik said. Coe stayed at the scene to help before he went to the hospital.

Brown smoke still billowed from the site hours later as the fire crews worked to extinguish the fire. All that was left of the home was scorched piles of debris on the property. Other homes in the area had broken windows, smoke damage and debris on their lawns. The heat from the explosion could be felt on Main Street.

Richard Russell, who lives next to the home, said windows in his home were blown out, a door was knocked off the hinges, a television was knocked off its stand, shutters fell off his windows and the gutters fell off of his house.

“I just basically got up and went to the side of the house (where I heard the sound). I looked out and saw the house was on fire and within a minute I heard a second explosion,” Russell said. “Thank God they all made it out.”

Russell said he grabbed his dog and ran out of the house once he realized what happened.

“Within two minutes the house was leveled, completely flattened,” Russell said.

Other neighbors said they heard large “popping” sounds around 11 a.m. 

“I heard two big ‘kabooms’ and it shook my house. When I heard the noise I thought someone hit the front of my house,” Main Street resident Sarah Sheehan said.

The Rev. Mark Cregan, president of Stonehill College, said he, Gilbreth and another school official were on their way to see the students in the hospital Monday.

“As far as we know they are okay,” Cregan said.

Tarulli said he was going home for a couple of days, but would be back Friday night to watch his teammates play against Pace College at 7 p.m.

Staff photographer Jacob Belcher contributed to this report.