Pocono News Section

Man to Go to Trial for Causing Exeter Explosion

Man to Go to Trial for Causing Exeter Explosion - Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 5:45PM EST

Reported by: Mike Trim
Wednesday, Feb 17, 2010 @ 05:45pm EST
WEST PITTSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY -- We're learning more about an Exeter explosion last summer from the people who were affected. Several neighbors of David Lamoreaux were at his preliminary hearing.

Rosalie Murtha fought back tears watching her former neighbor David Lamoreaux walk into court. "I feel like justice is served. I believe that he's in his own hell," she said.

Lamoreaux is still badly burned from the explosion police say he caused. Last August, Lamoreaux's house exploded, damaging 55 homes and neighboring JFK Elementary.

Murtha was with her daughter, Eileen Dewey, a few feet away. "By rights, we shouldn't be here but God certainly had other plans for us," she said.

Dewey and Murtha say they got in their car seconds before the explosion. Lamoreaux is charged with arson and causing a catastrophe.

Dewey lives down the street from the blast. "It's never going to be the same. We hear a siren, we get scared. It was just a traumatic awful, awful thing that happened," she said.

Exeter Police Chief John McNeil also lives in the blast zone. "It's something I hope I don't have to experience again. And I really feel for my neighbors and the surrounding people because they have went through a lot of damage," he said.

Lamoreaux waived his preliminary hearing. The next step will be his trial in Luzerne County court.

Lamoreaux was so badly burned from the explosion he couldn't stand in front a judge until a few weeks ago. He's locked up in the Luzerne County prison.