Had it occurred a little while later, the mother or her daughter could have been home. Watch video
Crystal Hlatky was out shopping Saturday afternoon at Wal-Mart and then stopped at her mom's house on Brainard Street in Phillipsburg.
Her daughter, Dakota, 16, was heading back to their still-new apartment on the second and third floors of 74 Filmore St. in town.
A friend of Dakota's pulled her aside before she got home.
The house had blown up.
The brother of Hlatky's fiance heard it on a police scanner. He called his mother and she called Stephen, Hlatky said.
"Not even 5 seconds later he was out the door and up there within five minutes," Hlatky said.
When Stephen Sutton got to the scene, there was only one word he could use to describe the devastation at the attached homes at 76 and 74 Filmore St.
"Wow," he told Hlatky.
Hlatky, who turns 33 in 12 days, couldn't bring herself to go up there. She didn't see it until the houses were torn down.
"Just seeing pictures on Facebook turned my stomach," she said. A window remained, as did a wall between the kitchen and living room on the second floor.
Crystal Hlatky, her daughter, Dakota and Crystal's fiance, Stephen Sutton, stand joined together June 8, 2016, across the street from an empty stone lot at 74 Fillmore St., Phillipsburg where their home stood until it exploded June 4, 2016. (Tim Wynkoop | lehighvalleylive.com contributor) If they had been watching TV, they would be dead, she said. If Dakota were in her third-floor bedroom, she'd be dead, Hlatky said.
"We wouldn't be here," she said somberly. "... Everyone tells us, everything else is replaceable, we're not."
The family didn't have renter's insurance. A GoFundMe page has been set up and the first deposit arrived Wednesday morning in their bank account, she said. As of Wednesday morning, $145 was raised.
The American Red Cross is helping the family, who are currently living with Hlatky's mother.
Hlatky, who grew up in Belvidere but moved in the late 1990s to Phillipsburg, works at Big Lots in the old Hillcrest shopping center. Folks there are trying to help out and her sister has put a collection jar where she works, Hlatky said.
Her manager at the store told Hlatky, "You were just getting back on your feet, now you have to do it all over again," she said.
Blast location confirmed, but cause under investigation
Before February, the family was homeless for about a year, she said. They got shelter by paying to stay in a hotel.
Once in their new place, Hlatky spent about $2,500 or her $2,900 tax return on furnishing the place, she said.
And then it was gone.
Phillipsburg police Chief James Faulbon said Wednesday the explosion is still under investigation by police, the town fire department and the Warren County Prosecutor's Office and fire marshal. It could be some time until a cause is known, he said.
The family is waiting for the official ruling.
"There's so many rumors going around," she said, mentioning a gas leak and a meth lab as speculation. "Nobody's going to know the honest truth until the investigation is over."
The second-floor resident of 76 Filmore St. remains hospitalized with serious burns.
Hlatky said she met 36-year-old Clay Metzger, but, outside of the formal introduction, they haven't spoken.
She has known her downstairs neighbor, Elizabeth Quetel, for years. Quetel wasn't home when the blast happened -- she was on her way from work -- but two of her children and her mother were, Hlatky said. They all survived, she said.
Hlatky and Sutton have begun to look for a new apartment and have reached out to Family Promise, which helped get them the place on Filmore, she said. They've received clothing donations, since they only had the clothes on their backs, she added.
"We're just taking it day by day," she said. "Just doing our normal routine. It hit my daughter a little harder," because she lost a birthday card sent to her on her first birthday by her grandfather -- a man who died five years ago.
Once again, while that can't be replaced, there is perspective.
"But one thing is, all three of us are still alive," Hlatky said.
Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.