Local state lawmakers gathered Thursday announce legislation that would require high-risk facilities to coordinate emergency preparedness plans with nearby emergency crews.
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State Sen. Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Tina Davis, both Democrats, announced the “Preparedness Requirements for High Risk Facilities” bill in the wake of the Dec. 23, 2025, fatal blast at the Bristol Health and Rehab Center in Bristol Township.
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The proposal is designed to close gaps in Pennsylvania law that currently do not require nursing homes, day care centers, and treatment facilities to share their emergency plans with police departments, fire companies, ambulance squads, and county emergency managers.
“In an emergency, preparation is not optional, and coordination between local first responders and high-risk care facilities is critical,” Santarsiero said. “Our first responders demonstrated their bravery and heroism on Dec. 23rd but they were operating blind.”
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While federal and state laws mandate that such facilities maintain internal emergency plans, there is no statewide requirement to share them with the local agencies who would be first to respond to serious incidents.
Santarsiero noted that requirements vary by facility type and regulatory agency, leaving a vacuum where a “single cross-agency framework” should be.
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Bristol Township Fire Marshal and Emergency Management Coordinator Kevin Dippolito, who assisted in drafting the legislation, said the primary challenge during the December explosion was a lack of details on the center.
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Responders struggled to determine the locations of residents, employees, and vendors as they searched a blown-apart building filled with natural gas and fire.
“The greatest challenge was the accountability of everybody in the building,” Dippolito said.
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Santarsiero said that because no system existed to verify evacuations, crews conducted “extended searches that went on in that building that were unnecessary” while operating under dangerous conditions, which led to rescue crews from around the region responding.
The proposed legislation establishes five primary requirements for high-risk facilities. They include written plans for fires, explosions, evacuations, and shelter-in-place scenarios; systems to track residents and staff, including appointing an on-site coordinator; provide details on building layouts and utility shutoffs; share plans with local authorities; and conduct annual reviews of plans by state officials.
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While the requirements may seem obvious, Santarsiero said they need to be spelled out in law.
Sensitive security details within the plans would remain exempt from public disclosure under the state’s Right-to-Know Law.
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Attorney John Cordisco, a former Democratic state representative who is representing victims of the Bristol Township explosion, highlighted the human cost of the tragedy.
Among the dead was Felicitas Motani Nduthu, a 52-year-old nurse from Bristol Township and Kenyan immigrant who stayed behind to care for residents.
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“She did not abandon the people who depended on her,” Cordisco said. “She stayed, continued to care for them, and in doing so, she paid the ultimate price with her life.”
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a preliminary report earlier this year that stated the blast happened more than three hours after the facility’s maintenance director first reported the smell of gas. PECO was on the scene when the explosion happened.
The explosion triggered a partial building collapse while as many as 180 people were inside, the NTSB report said.
A final NTSB report is expected by December.
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Davis, who represents the area where the explosion happened, called for swift action to update what she described as “old laws.”
“It’s really sad that we have to wait for an emergency or devastation like that for us to figure out how to tackle these problems,” Davis said.
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The lawmakers expect to introduce the bill in both the House and Senate in the coming days.
During the press conference, Santarsiero also praised the “amazing work” of emergency responders and the medical teams at neighboring Lower Bucks Hospital who treated victims after the explosion.
The lawmakers credited reporting on the safety reports by Bucks County Courier Times journalist Jo Ciavaglia for bringing attention to the issue.
