Jackson, MI – Consumers Energy admits employees detected a gas leak in Royal Oak and left the scene prior to a Feb. 27 explosion that killed 58-year-old Daniel Malczynski.
A Crew ruptured a line while laying an underground gas main using a boring process and disobeyed a procedural requirement that all existing underground infrastructure be unearthed.
After smelling the gas, they knocked on Malczynski’s door, but he did not answer. The crew left. And while a worker was en route, Malczynski’s house exploded, killing him and leaving behind only the flaming recess of the basement. The blast damage homes up to two blocks away.
Although it appears rules were neglected on the front end, Jackson-based Consumers Energy reacted swiftly and thoroughly in the aftermath, offering residents free lodging and performing courtesy gas checks and pilot lighting when residents returned to the evacuated street.
The Detroit Free Press reports this was not the first time company utility workers smelled gas and left the scene prior to a fatal explosion.
On Dec. 29, 2010, a Consumers Energy employee responded to a call of gas smelled in Wayne. He also detected the scent and spent an hour searching for the source but was unable to find if and left while a specialized “sniffer truck” was dispatched, the Free Press reports.
Meanwhile, a furniture store exploded, killing James Zell, 64, and Leslie Machniak, 54, employees of the business, and severely injuring owner Paul Franks, 64.