Valentine's Day, Feb. 14 turned into a nightmare as a loud explosion shook houses in the Hickory Hills manufactured home park, Moorestown, at 9:15 p.m., resulting in the death of a man.

Residents reported feeling the concussion shock at the far end of the development. With the heavy snow accumulating on porch roofs, many homeowners thought their porch roofs had collapsed.

The home, located at 118 Hickory Hills Drive, was owned by Hilda Parsons and her companion of 11 years, Bill Neith. Neith was later pronounced dead by Northampton County Coroner Zachary Lyseck.

Neighbors reported seeing an initial spurt of flame that quickly engulfed the home. The home then exploded into parts that were scattered across neighboring homes, the road and trees. Firefighters battled the blaze until 2:10 a.m.

Neighbor Alex Mancino said he was sitting in his reading chair, in his home, when the explosion occurred.

"When the weather is bad, I always light three candles," he said. "One in front of Jesus, another by the Blessed Virgin and another by St. Jude, the patron of hopeless causes. I'm very religious."

The explosion broke the window near Mancino's reading chair.

"I was wearing this [hoodie] over my head and it protected me from the glass," he said.

He walked away with minor scratches. However, Mancino's home is heavily damaged.

Two doors away, Treciva and Warren Beach's home sustained broken windows. A neighbors home to the right of the explosion suffered broken windows and homes across the street sustained similar damage.

Neighbors residing in the area of 118 Hickory Hills were evacuated and spent the night with family and friends. Evacuated homeowners were told by park management they should not return to their homes until Tuesday so tradesmen could repair underground propane lines. The mobile home park is responsible for maintaining and certifying the private propane gas network that serves the community.

Parsons was at work when the incident occurred.

"I didn't plan on going into work, but one of the guys called me and was joking that I was afraid to drive in the snow," she said between sobs. "So I decided to go in because Bill and I weren't going to do anything special."

Firefighters from Klecknersville, Bushkill, followed quickly by Upper Nazareth, responded to the explosion. Detective Rick Knecht of Moore Township Police Department became the main point of contact.

Initially, there was no confirmation that anyone was inside, though some of Parsons' neighbors noted the couple had two cars and only one vehicle was parked on the asphalt parking pad. Friends made a concerted effort to contact Parsons at her place of work.

According to firefighters, the explosion was so forceful it blew the roof into the air and the structural walls were blasted away. Firefighters called in special equipment to move the snow-laden roof and recover Neith's body. Parsons waited in the vain hope that somehow her friend survived.

Police summoned the coroner at 3 a.m. Parsons received the official word 5:30 a.m. Neith was dead. Parsons and the deputy coroner visited Neith's mother later Saturday morning.

Parsons and Neith complained to park management about the strong smell of propane late last month.

"They changed the regulator and we started to smell propane," Parsons said. "They [park management] sent one of the maintenance people over, but they couldn't find a leak."

As the problem continued, a local expert was dispatched to Parsons' home and he reported he could not locate leaks in the piping at the home. Because the odor was intermittent, the park scheduled a rework of the line as soon as the weather cleared because the leak was determined to be underground.

"We thought we had it fixed the last time someone was out [Feb. 4], but the propane smell came back. It was particularly strong on Friday." Parsons said.

Although Parsons indicated that Neith normally rested on a sofa watching TV around 9 p.m., one neighbor thought he saw Neith on his porch smoking a cigarette just before the explosion. According to Parsons, Neith was in poor health.

Hickory Hill residents were outraged that park management did not make a more concerted effort to resolve the reported gas leak. Residents who had problems with the management want to see a change.

Residents are considering forming a homeowner's association to deal with a management team that homeowners feel is not responsive to their concerns.

"There have been a number of people reporting gas leaks," said another anonymous resident. "We had a big leak just before Christmas and they shut the park down."

Knecht called in state officials to investigate the cause of the explosion. According to Knecht, the final report will not be released for a few weeks.

The Moore Township Police Department did not respond to calls made by The Press in regard to the status of the fire investigation.