Baltimore Sun
(TNS)
The initial investigation into the deadly Aug. 11 gas explosion of a home in Harford County found two reports of gas odors were made the night before the blast, and says federal agents will focus on Baltimore Gas and Electric’s “construction practices, its process for recording and responding to odor complaints, and its pipeline safety management system.”
The National Safety and Transportation Board on Wednesday released its preliminary report on the explosion of the home at 2300 Arthurs Woods Drive in Bel Air that killed the homeowner, Ray Corkran, 73, and a BGE contractor, Jose Rodriguez-Alvarado, 35.
It noted that gas and electrical lines were in close proximity in a common trench, similar to what led state regulators to penalize BGE with fines of more than $437,000 for safety violations that caused a 2019 explosion in a Columbia office park.
The NTSB’s initial report on the Bel Air explosion said BGE investigators recovered damaged electrical lines and a gas service line with a hole on the bottom, and detected underground gas in the area of the destroyed home.
The damage to the electrical cables, and especially the hole in the gas line, are key, said a former federal explosions investigator who reviewed the preliminary report at The Sun’s request.
“The hole in the line is significant because the root cause of any natural gas explosion is the gas being where it doesn’t belong,” said Richard Summerfield, a retired agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who now works as a consultant. “Now that they’ve identified how the gas got out of the system, the investigation is going to center on what caused that hole.”
After the NTSB released its preliminary report Wednesday into the Bel Air house explosion, Baltimore Gas and Electric announced steps to enhance system safety and reliability.
The utility company said it had recently implemented “refresher trainings” on gas and electric emergency processes, reinforced procedures on “responding to issues” and “increased oversight of emergency customer calls to the company.”
The Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office previously told The Sun that BGE usually calls local fire departments when it receives reports of gas odors, but did not do so in this case.
The NTSB report said investigators examined the blast site, reviewed BGE’s operational procedures, gathered documentation, conducted interviews and recovered physical evidence for examination.
The report stated that the night before the explosion, the home experienced an electrical outage.
According to the report, the outage prompted a BGE electrical service technician to respond to the scene. That evening, two reports of the odor of gas were made. The first was by the technician who made the report to BGE’s electrical dispatch operator and the second was from a neighbor 0.2 miles away from the home.
According to the report, BGE responded to the neighbor’s report and did not find a leak. The Sun previously reported that a neighbor, Carline Fisher, had called BGE and spoke to a worker who responded.
Gas smell reported to BGE night before Bel Air home explosion
The following morning, two BGE electrical contractors were working on the electrical repair when the explosion occurred — resulting in the death of one of the contractors, Rodriguez-Alvarado. The second contractor suffered minor injuries, according to the report.
The report stated that in an interview with NTSB investigators, another worker said that he smelled gas in front of the home about 6:05 a.m., just before the explosion.
NTSB said the natural gas distribution system near the home — consisting of a 1 and 1/4-inch diameter plastic main — was installed in 2006. Another service line was a 1/2-inch diameter plastic service line, installed in 2007.
According to the report, the operating pressure of the gas system at the time of the explosion was about 89 pounds per square inch gauge — below the 99 per square inch gauge maximum allowable operating pressure.
The report did not state the cause of the gas leak or the ignition source. NTSB said their investigation is still ongoing.
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