At a Lake Dallas council meeting Wednesday, Atmos Energy officials confirmed a gas leak from an old pipe caused an explosion that significantly injured a woman and displaced others.
The special-called meeting took place almost two weeks after the explosion, which sparked much criticism from residents toward city officials.
Residents complained about a lack of communication and coordination after the explosion.
Most all seats in the council chamber were full with residents, and each frustrated resident’s remarks were met with a smattering of applause from attendees.
The explosion on March 19 destroyed a home at 620 Moseley St. and hospitalized the resident.
The Lake Cities Fire Department was dispatched to the explosion, structure collapse and fire at about 7:06 p.m.
The blast blew the roof off the home, leveling the walls and trapping a woman beneath the rubble, according to a lawsuit filed against Atmos.
That woman, later identified as Jessica Bailey Lopez, was transported to a landing zone at 501 Swisher Road where she was then airlifted for treatment at a hospital ICU.
After the public comment session, City Manager Luke Olson provided an account of the explosion and responded to some criticisms.
Atmos Energy officials reported they identified a main line gas leak under Wilson Drive just south of Moseley Street that contributed to the explosion.
The exact cause or timing of the leak is yet to be determined, Atmos Energy officials said, and a portion of the pipe was sent to a lab Wednesday for further testing.
“The isolated leak was on a short section of pipe that was made of material installed in the 1970s by a predecessor company,” said Kyle Slaughter, Atmos Energy’s vice president of operations. “Predecessor companies worked to remove this type of pipe from the system. It appears this small section of pipe was not found in that effort and for that reason, we did not know it was there.”
Atmos Energy acquired the gas distribution system in 2004, Slaughter said, and has worked to identify such materials and remove them since then.
“We are not aware of the presence of it anywhere else in Lake Dallas,” Slaughter said.
Slaughter said Atmos Energy believes the leak under Wilson Drive was an isolated incident and “not reflective of a broader system issue.”
“A number of homes were evacuated” and Atmos Energy shut off natural gas service to the area, leaving about 350 homes without service, Slaughter said.
Olson reported a majority of residents were able to return to their homes by 3 p.m. on March 20, apart from one home that sustained significant structural damage.
Portions of Moseley Street remained restricted as of Thursday afternoon.
“We continue to find that the system is performing as expected and operating safely,” Slaughter said Wednesday night.
The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates natural gas pipelines, also continues to investigate the explosion. Commission personnel were not present at the meeting.
Two separate gas line breaks that occurred on March 17 were unrelated to the March 19 explosion, Olson reported.
Lopez sues Atmos Energy
Lopez filed a $1 million lawsuit on March 24 against Atmos Energy.
The lawsuit states that she sustained “life-altering, catastrophic injuries that include extensive, severe burns over her face and body, broken bones, and wounds from blast projectiles.”
The lawsuit accuses Atmos of neglecting and failing to maintain its natural gas line, which leaked and caused gas to migrate into Lopez’s home, where it ignited and caused the explosion.
She was not a customer of Atmos, according to the suit.
Atmos has been served with the suit but had not filed a response as of Thursday afternoon.
Kelly Biegler, Atmos Energy’s vice president of public affairs, gave a statement on Wednesday about Lopez and others affected by the explosion .
“We care very deeply about the safety of every community, including Lake Dallas,” Biegler said. “It’s our highest priority and that’s why we’re committed to understanding what happened and taking appropriate action to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Lopez’s lawsuit states she is lucky to be alive.
Other victims of home explosions related to Atmos Energy have not been so lucky.
In January 2024, a Carrollton resident’s home exploded. Sergio Valdez filed a lawsuit the following day which stated an Atmos Energy gas line leaked into the pipes of his home and caused an explosion when someone lit a cigarette.
Valdez was hospitalized with severe burns and died weeks later, his attorney told WFAA.
Melinda Gonzales was renting a home on Huntingdon Avenue in Dallas when it exploded, killing her, in 2021. Her family filed a lawsuit against Atmos Energy for allegedly failing to cap and secure gas lines during maintenance and repairs on her street.
A 12-year-old girl was also killed in a Dallas home explosion in 2018. The National Transportation Safety Board found Atmos Energy responsible for the incident and fined the energy company $1.6 million.
City disaster response complaints
A couple residents who addressed the council thanked the city for their response to the disaster.
Another handful of residents lamented a shortage of communication and direction from the city in the immediate aftermath of the explosion.
People, including elderly and sick residents, were evacuated from their homes “with no information of where to go or what to do,” resident Jonathan Graves said.
“The city of Lake Dallas failed some of its citizens,” Graves said. “I can understand why this event was hard to manage for those in charge, because they had not pre-established plans on how to handle situations like the one that arose two weeks ago.”
Resident Scott Griffin called for the city manager’s resignation over what he called a pattern of dysfunction.
“You routinely ignore legitimate residents’ concerns,” Griffin said.” You fail to respond in a timely, professional manner. You slow walk, you block, you do nothing but absolute minimum functionality. While you snooze and check the boxes the residents of Lake Dallas continue to suffer the consequences.”
The city also got flack for canceling the next meeting after the explosion. The city manager explained that it would not have been able to discuss the explosion since the agenda was posted beforehand and they could not deviate from agenda topics.
Olson told residents he is proud of how Lake Dallas and its neighboring agencies came together to respond to the disaster.
Olson also reported Atmos Energy coordinated directly with homeowners to provide hotel accommodations and assistance for residents without gas.
One resident, Wendy Orosco, said Atmos’ accommodations weren’t timely enough.
Orosco’s neighbors, one of which has stage four cancer, had to evacuate but had nowhere to go.
“Thankfully, the daughter thought to call us and of course we opened our home to them,” Orosco said. “We only had the living room to offer and they slept on a sectional, all three of them. [The mother] with stage four cancer had to sleep sitting straight up.”
By the time the family was offered a hotel, Orosco said, they were able to go back to their home.
“There was no communication until the next day at 2 p.m.,” Orosco said. “For those that had been displaced, that was almost 24 hours too late.”
Olson did admit that the city could have done a better job of communicating and getting the contact information of all the evacuated residents for follow ups.
He also said the city could have come up with a centralized location to send evacuees.
Residents also complained of impoliteness from Lake Dallas officers who were evacuating people.
Olson asked residents to give first responders “a little grace … in a very difficult situation,” and remarked that evacuating is sometimes going to be difficult and uncomfortable for people.
The city manager told residents they are working on three or four dedicated locations for any future evacuations, and other disaster procedures.
Resident Christina Watson said she hopes the city looks to other municipalities for guidance on developing an emergency action plan for the future.
“I hope that they dedicate time at a future council meeting to discuss their emergency action plans with the residents of our city,” Watson said. “So that we, the residents of the city, are confident in your ability to navigate us through tough times instead of cowering behind closed doors.”
BROOKE COLOMBO can be reached at 940-566-6882 and bcolombo@dentonrc.com.
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