Friends and Family of the PGW worker killed by the Tacony gas explosion came together Friday night to remember Mark Keeley.
“There are no words to explain it -- it shouldn’t have happened it’s just not fair,” friend Jared Schwarz said. “He’s 19 years old -- it’s too early.”
On what felt like one of the coldest nights loved ones gathered at Saint Cecilia’s in Fox Chase to celebrate Mark’s life.
“It’s not a time to mourn the loss -- we’ve done that the past few days -- it’s time to celebrate his life,” Schwartz said. “That’s what (Mark) would want us to do.”
“As best I knew Mark -- he wouldn’t want anybody being upset right now,” friend Randy Emerson said.
On Tuesday an explosion from a 12-inch gas main leak in the city’s Tacony section took Mark’s life and injured four other PGW workers and a firefighter also on the scene.
On Friday some of the residents and business owners were trying inspect the damage left from the blast, which the cause of remains under investigation.
Resident Lance Masse still wasn’t allowed into his apartment Friday after it was nearly completely destroyed.
“Its frustrating -- I mean, everything that I own is in there,” he said while expressing that he was just happy to have made it out alive before the blast.
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“It could've been much worse,” business owner Barbara Coyle said.
But while everyone affected by the destruction of homes and businesses were counting their blessings that they were alive, Mark’s friends were celebrating the time they had with the baseball and basketball player.
“Everytime he walked in the room everybody laughed,” Schwarz said. “He just put a smile on your face -- you had a bad day, you see Mark and everything changes.”
Mark started working as a gas line worker for PGW, the same company his dad worked for, in September.
“He told me that when he first got the PGW job that he was going to work there for the rest of his life,” said friend Frank Downing.
The Cardinal Dougherty grad left behind not only his friends but also his parents and siblings.
“He was a great kid -- he’d give you the shirt off his back if you needed it,” Downing said.
