A wide array of safety forces and emergency crews were at the scene of an explosion at Phoenix House in Austintown on Saturday. Staff photo / Dylan Bigelow

AUSTINTOWN — Natural gas is the likely cause of an explosion that has left dozens of senior citizens without a home for the holiday.

Township officials provided an update Monday on the explosion Saturday at the Phoenix House senior living high-rise at 850 N. Meridian Road.

More than 100 residents were evacuated, and at least a dozen were injured.

Fire Chief David Schertzer led Monday’s news conference at Township Hall, which also included Assistant Fire Chief Tom O’Hara, Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito, police Chief Valorie Delmont and trustees Robert Santos and Monica Deavers. Trustee Bruce Shepas has been out of town.

“At this time, the investigation remains active and ongoing. The preliminary findings appear that it is likely the result of a natural gas explosion, however investigators have not yet determined the source of the gas or what might have ignited it,” Schertzer said. “The structure has been declared uninhabitable until further notice, and we are making arrangements for residents to retrieve some of their personal belongings they will need for the immediate future.”

Schertzer said the process of getting residents, with police and fire escorts, into the building will begin today. He said residents will be contacted directly and individually.

The plan is to work by floors, giving residents or their representatives a “very large” bag that will hold clothes, medications and some other small personal belongings.

Schertzer said they will be able to take what they need to get through until they can retrieve the rest of their items or they are able to return to their apartments.

He said the building may not be lost, and residents could conceivably return to it at some point.

“We’re just kind of getting through the investigation, so we don’t really know definitively what is going to happen with the building,” Schertzer said. “But preliminary reports seem like, structurally, it may not be very compromised. I don’t want to say it’s mostly cosmetic, but it may be OK.”

O’Hara said one person was treated locally and then transferred to Cleveland Metropolitan Hospital in critical condition. One person was treated and admitted locally and has since been released. One was treated and admitted and is in stable condition and is expected to be released, and 10 people were treated and released from local emergency rooms.

Schertzer said the department has not received any notification of fatalities.

The blast, which occurred about 12:45 p.m. Saturday, tore away portions of the building’s outer walls and emergency responders could be seen working their way through that area Saturday evening, apparently in search of potentially injured or trapped residents. Much of the damage appeared to be on the middle floors of the complex.

That night, trustees met in emergency session, at which they committed up to $10,000 from the Westchester Fund to support emergency housing for affected residents. By 11 p.m., all of the affected residents of the building were placed in beds in local facilities. The township credits the Western Reserve Transit Authority and the Austintown Local Schools transportation department for ensuring those in need were efficiently transported to a safe location.

“Our main concern was the health and safety of these residents, and I thank the community so much for their help,” Deavers said. “All of these people here and everyone in the community worked together and it was heartfelt, and thank you so much.”

Brittany Koch took over as the director of the Austintown Senior Center on Nov. 17 and last week was her first on the job.

She spent the weekend organizing her facility to take in donations and facilitate distribution of resources.

“We have provided a location for the Red Cross to continue to obtain intake information for the residents. They were able to get through all the residents (Monday),” she said. “We did have a dropoff location for clothes, food, personal hygiene items, and the community has just been overwhelmingly supportive.”

Koch said the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley picked up an entire truckload of items to go distribute them Monday, and more donations came in after that.

“On top of that, we were able to deliver lunches and dinners to the residents at a hotel yesterday and to a nursing facility, and we will be able to provide dinner for them tonight (Monday) as well,” she said.

Koch said those who wish to donate items can arrange it through local charity organizations, and monetary donations can be made through the United Way.

D’Apolito and Santos said the township’s website and Facebook pages will be used to communicate with media, residents and other stakeholders.

“I encourage everybody, if they’re still looking to donate, to go ahead and go to Austintown’s web page, and there’s a link on the resource tab which will direct you to the correct location,” he said. “We also will make that link available on our Facebook page.”

D’Apolito said important documents that residents will need for insurance claims also will be made available on that page as they become available.

“I think there’s still a lot of things that are waiting to be worked out with the insurance adjuster when he arrives on scene,” he said. “We are still waiting on representatives from the building to come forward with the insurance adjuster to make some determinations, as far as the future of the building.”