Relatives of an employee killed in the Dec. 23, 2025 explosion at Bristol Health & Rehab Center have filed a new wrongful-death suit, arguing that the facility and the local utility shrugged off repeated warnings about a powerful gas smell. The April 13 filing adds to a growing stack of civil claims over the blast, which tore through part of the Tower Road complex and sent dozens of people to area hospitals. The families say slow-walked repairs and a decision not to evacuate left frail residents and staff trapped in the path of a disaster they believe was avoidable.
The new complaint, lodged in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and reported April 13 by PhillyBurbs, names PECO Energy, its parent Exelon, Bristol Health & Rehab Center, Saber Healthcare Holdings LLC and Saber Healthcare Group as defendants. Hoodline previously documented the initial mayhem and rescue response in a report on the nursing home explosion in Bristol Township. According to the latest filing, relatives of nurse Muthoni Nduthu, who died in the blast, and of resident Patricia Ann Mero, who later died from her injuries, are among the plaintiffs.
What the suit says
The complaint accuses both the nursing home operator and the utility of failing to promptly locate and secure a gas leak and of keeping residents in the building while repair work was underway. Earlier filings from survivors say those alleged lapses amounted to gross negligence and seek damages for wrongful death and catastrophic injuries, according to the AP.
Investigators' timeline
A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board lays out a tight and grim timeline. Investigators say a natural-gas odor was first reported shortly after 11:00 a.m. An Exelon energy technician arrived around 11:50 a.m., and a meter-services crew reached the facility at about 1:20 p.m. The building exploded at roughly 2:15 p.m. Exelon isolated natural-gas service to the property at about 3:50 p.m., and subsurface bar-hole testing picked up gas outside the building around 5:00 p.m. The sequence, the NTSB notes, is consistent with extended exposure to leaking gas. The preliminary findings are posted by the NTSB.
Victims and the site
Officials say the blast ultimately killed three people, including 52-year-old nurse Muthoni Nduthu, and injured about 19 to 20 others. More than 120 residents and staff had to be moved after sections of the 174-bed facility at 905 Tower Road either collapsed or were left unsafe. The wreckage is still fenced off while investigators dig up and analyze the gas-service line, according to NBC10 Philadelphia.
Legal implications
The April 13 complaint adds new relatives to a docket that was already busy. Survivors and injured residents first went to court in early January, and there are now at least eight negligence cases pending in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, PhillyBurbs reports. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say they plan to dig into PECO and Exelon repair logs, meter-service records and the facility's emergency procedures. Regulators, they add, may also ask whether past inspection citations should have triggered a faster response. Before Saber assumed operations, the nursing home had racked up more than $400,000 in state fines, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"Our pre-suit investigation left no doubt that the defendants were responsible for this foreseeable and preventable tragedy," a plaintiffs' attorney said in a statement to PhillyVoice. Federal investigators and the civil attorneys will be working on parallel tracks, and both sides acknowledge it could take many months before the official cause is nailed down and any party is held to account in court.
