SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Friends and supporters are organizing a fundraiser to help the family that lost their home in last week’s devastating explosion and fire in the Elk Lake area of Wayne County.<\/p>\n
Local dance instructor and community member Dave Ragnacci announced that an organizational meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at his studio in Scranton to begin planning a fundraising event for Rita and Fred Firmstone, whose home was destroyed in the explosion on Sensentine Road.<\/p>\n
Ragnacci said Rita has been a member of his studio for more than 35 years.<\/p>\n
“These two people have a heart of gold and are always giving, giving, giving,” Ragnacci wrote. “It’s time to give back.”<\/p>\n
Organizers say they are seeking volunteers and community members willing to help plan the event, which is expected to feature food, entertainment, prizes and other fundraising activities.<\/p>\n
The update comes as the family continues recovering from the June 11 explosion that destroyed multiple homes and damaged several others in the lakeside community.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Pennsylvania State Police investigators said the blast was caused by the failure of a propane cylinder outside the residence, resulting in a propane leak that ignited.<\/p>\n
Ragnacci also provided an update on Rita, Fred and Bobby, who were injured in the explosion.<\/p>\n
“Thank God they are safe and out of the hospital. God was definitely on their side,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added that he has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from the community, including phone calls, messages and offers of assistance.<\/p>\n
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“I’ll be sure to let them know all of you who have reached out,” Ragnacci said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Friends and supporters are organizing a fundraiser to help the family that lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-220432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}