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Background: A fire consumes a house on Hialeah Drive in Plum, Pennsylvania, on April 22, 2022 (WTAE/YouTube). Inset: Jacob Rabb (Laura Petty/The Tribune-Review).
Years after a devastating fire and explosion obliterated a family’s residence in Pennsylvania, investigators have pointed to the father as the alleged culprit behind the destruction.
Initially hailed as a hero by his then-wife for supposedly rescuing them, the father is now accused after she reportedly discovered a confession note admitting he caused the calamity.
Jacob Rabb, aged 41, is facing multiple charges, including four counts each of attempted criminal homicide, aggravated arson, and arson endangering individuals. Additionally, he faces two counts of arson endangering property, and arson causing or risking catastrophe, as per court documents reviewed by Law&Crime. Rabb remains detained in the Allegheny County Jail without the option of bail.
The incident unfolded around 11 p.m. on April 22, 2022, when Rabb, his partner Laura Petty, and their three sons, aged 11, 6, and 2, were in their home on Hialeah Drive in Plum, Pennsylvania. Petty recounted to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that she was asleep while her husband had dozed off in the living room.
Without warning, an explosion erupted.
“I don’t remember anything,” a then-31-year-old Petty told the local newspaper days later. “I don’t remember hearing a blast or feeling the blast or anything. I woke up in bed with the roof collapsed on me. I was super disoriented. If it wasn’t for Jake, we wouldn’t have made it out.”
She added more plaudits to Rabb. “He was the one running around making sure we all got out safe,” she said. “I was so out of it. It was the worst nightmare.”
The family of five made it out of the house, though the 11-year-old boy reportedly suffered first-degree burns.
The blast shocked community members in the Allegheny County borough just east of Pittsburgh. They wanted to know what happened, one neighbor told area ABC affiliate WTAE. However, for years, they waited without answers.
That was until this week, when authorities arrested Rabb and filed charges against him. According to a criminal complaint obtained by the regional TV station, police investigators determined that Rabb manually disconnected the home’s dryer’s gas connection on the day of the explosion.
A nearby furnace likely caused the ignition, with a deputy fire marshal determining that the fire’s cause was natural gas vapors released through manual manipulation of a gas line, per the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Months after the fire completely destroyed the home, Petty reportedly separated from Rabb and filed a protection-from-abuse order against him. She subsequently found two startling handwritten notes in her kitchen cabinet.
One allegedly read in part, “If I can’t have her no one will or my kids…” according to WTAE. The other note allegedly stated, “P.S. I did blow up the house.”
Rabb’s father allegedly told police that his son admitted he had caused the explosion. The defendant reportedly denied telling Petty that he was responsible for the blast.
Rabb had a preliminary arraignment on Tuesday. He is set to return to court in a week for a preliminary hearing.