Gas leak explosions are happening more often, including deadly blasts in North Texas
If the investigation into Monday’s explosion at a downtown Fort Worth, Texas, hotel finds it was caused by a natural gas leak, the incident would be part of a worsening trend of such incidents across the country, according to energy sector watchdog groups.
The massive explosion at Sandman Signature Hotel, which left 21 people injured, has not been tied to an official cause. But Fort Worth Fire Department authorities have said it was likely a gas explosion, and representatives of Dallas-based natural gas distributor Atmos Energy have been on the scene.
Since 2010, incidents like fires and explosions caused by natural gas leaks have occurred every 40 hours on average in the United States, according to the Public Interest Research Group. The organization documented nearly 2,600 such incidents from 2010 to 2021, the group said in a 2022 report that cited data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
“Those explosions and fires killed 122 people and injured 603,” the report found.
Those were only the explosions serious enough to be reported to the federal government. The climate change and energy transition organization Climate Nexus published similar data in a recent report, and said leaks on customer-owned lines are not reported to the federal government.
In the past three years, there have been at least five natural gas explosions in North Texas not counting the Sandman explosion, according to documents maintained by the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state regulatory agency charged with overseeing the oil and gas industry. Atmos was the natural gas distributor in all of those cases but was not always found to be at fault for the explosions.
A number of the explosions in recent years were found to originate from leaks on the customer-owned portion of the gas lines, according to Railroad Commission documents.
That means the leaks were not on the Atmos-owned lines, but on portions that run under yards or inside buildings.
A spokesperson for the Railroad Commission said that the blame for Monday’s explosion will depend on where the leak originated. If it happened within the hotel, the property owner would be responsible; if it originated in supply lines, Atmos would be liable.
Shortly before 4 p.m. Monday, the powerful explosion blew out the ground-level of the Sandman, sending debris hundreds of feet and damaging neighboring buildings.
The Asian fusion restaurant Musume, in the basement level, is where the explosion appears to have taken place.
A representative from Northland Properties, the developer that owns Sandman Signature Hotel, said in an email statement that the company is cooperating with investigators.
A representative for Atmos also emailed a statement that said that company is cooperating with officials.
“Atmos Energy has conducted additional safety checks and is working to restore service outside the affected area,” spokesperson Kristin Goodspeed wrote.
Eric Hageman of the Minneapolis law firm Pritzker Hageman, which specializes in gas explosion litigation, said that he couldn’t speak to the Fort Worth blast specifically. But generally, he said, gas explosions appear to be increasing due in part to “aging infrastructure.”
“Gas explosions are trending upward generally across the country. I think it’s an increasing problem and more and more people are being injured and killed in gas explosions,” Hageman said.
Hageman added that another common factor is service work – anything disrupting the gas lines has the potential to trigger an explosion.
Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis told the City Council on Tuesday that natural gas is still safe for the public.
“But don’t get me wrong on that, if you smell gas, call,” he said.
While it remained unclear what may have caused the disaster, the Metroplex has seen numerous gas explosions in recent years, including a fatal 2018 explosion that led investigators to demand changes – and fines – from Atmos
.
Balch Springs, nail salon explosion, 2023
On Aug. 19, there was a natural gas explosion at a strip mall in Balch Springs, east of Dallas. The explosion and subsequent fire sent 10 people to the hospital, according to Railroad Commission documents.
The explosion centered around a nail salon in the strip mall, Fox 4 News reported, and was so powerful that it picked up the building’s walls and then set them back down.
Atmos was found not to be responsible because the “failure was on the customer owned line,” according to regulators.
Westworth Village, residential explosion, 2022
A home in Westworth Village – a pocket city inside Fort Worth boundaries – exploded in early December 2022, injuring at least two people and nearly leveling the home.
An investigation found no leaks in the gas lines at the home, according to Railroad Commission documents, although a leak at a neighboring home was discovered and repaired.
Tarrant County records indicate that authorities believe the resident may have intentionally leaked gas leading up to the explosion.
Garland, residential explosion, 2022
Two residents were killed and five were injured in an August home explosion in Garland.
The two people who died were family: 54-year-old Paula Reyes and 15-year-old Angel Reyes. A neighbor was burned trying to help the victims, WFAA reported.
An investigation found that the gas leak was in the yard line, which is not maintained by Atmos. The gas supplier was therefore not held responsible for the explosion, according to Railroad Commission documents.
Plano, residential explosion, 2021
Six people – three of them children – were sent to the hospital after a July home explosion in Plano.
Authorities initially indicated that the explosion was likely a natural gas leak, NBC DFW reported. But then, authorities said the leak may actually have been intentional.
Records show Atmos did not find any issues with the natural gas lines it owns and operates.
NBC DFW reported in 2022 that the cause of the explosion was still unknown.
Farmersville, Atmos facility explosion, 2021
Two workers were killed and another two injured in a June 2021 natural gas explosion during “routine maintenance” at an Atmos facility near Farmersville.
An investigation by the National Safety Transportation Board did not determine a root cause. The NTSB did find that there was likely a natural gas leak, with the danger exacerbated by “training practices which did not prepare workers to recognize and safely respond to abnormal operating conditions.”
The Railroad Commission found a number of alleged violations, including that Atmos did not have written procedures for maintenance or for emergency response; did not properly train its workers; and did not replace equipment that was known to be faulty.
Earlier explosions
There were more home explosions in the years before 2021, many of them detailed in a 2018 investigation by the Dallas Morning News, which found more than two dozen home explosions in North Texas
- in the prior decade.
That investigation was spurred by a particularly devastating explosion in Dallas. A 12-year-old girl was killed and some of her family members injured in 2018, when her Dallas home exploded.
Linda “Michellita” Rogers was getting ready for school when the blast killed her. Investigators found that Atmos had likely violated numerous safety regulations leading up to the blast.
Before the girl’s death, there had been two house fires in her neighborhood, and Atmos had found gas leaks throughout the neighborhood. Atmos also found more leaks in the same neighborhood after the explosion. The state hit Atmos with a $1.6 million fine in 2021 as a result of the explosion, and required the company to submit plans to fix the problems.
Downtown Fort Worth also saw another gas explosion nearly two decades ago, in 2005.
A natural gas line in a downtown church exploded, leaving the building extensively damaged and also closing evacuations and closures throughout Sundance Square.
The church, Morning Chapel CME Church, sued Atmos two years later. According to the court filing, an Atmos subcontractor had mistakenly connected a low-pressure line to a high-pressure line, causing a surge and then an explosion. The lawsuit was dismissed after the two sides reached a settlement, according to court documents.