Dallas, TX – A gas explosion that happened in Lakewood when a mother was home with her two children has forced them out of the house.
The wall in front of me just exploded, said Megan Anderson about the January 5 explosion. Just like BOOM. I don’t know how to describe it.
But Anderson’s 5-year-old son Jackson can describe it. The kitchen BLEW UP! he told CBS11.
The Andersons said they had no clue gas was seeping into their new home.
I didn’t smell anything before the explosion. I didn’t smell anything after the explosion, said Anderson. All of a sudden, boom, you have to leave overnight, said her husband, Jeremy.
Five weeks later, the family is still living out of a nearby apartment.
Atmos said it quickly fixed the source of the leak a main running through a back alley, but it’s still trying to extract the gas that’s built up under dense clay-like soil.
There’s a ton of gas under our house and they have to figure out some way to get to it, said Jeremy.
The soil may also be absorbing the rotten-egg scent added to natural gas to serve as a warning.
Atmos believes the gas took the path of least resistance, following an abandoned pipe that served the property’s previous home. It considers this an isolated incident.
The Andersons aren’t so sure and they have started spreading the word among neighbors.
Every house in the neighborhood has the same trench! said Jeremy.
The family said it’s not sure when, or even if, it will be able to move back.