KCTV5 Investigates: What led up to the deadly Lexington house explosion
LEXINGTON, Mo. (KCTV) - Two hours after a gas line was hit in Lexington, Missouri, a house exploded Wednesday night. KCTV5 Investigates is gaining an understanding of what happened leading up to this destruction.
“All these stories are going around and we don’t really know till the truth comes out,” said Lexington resident, Glenda Coats.
Around 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, a gas line was hit at 18th Street between Franklin Avenue and South Street. Crews were working on a fiber line installation.
Liberty Utilities, who owns the gas line, was made aware of the situation.
“We were just called to investigate an outside leak call when we arrived we found that we had a damaged main,” said Liberty Utilities Director of Operations, Jeff McChristian.
He said 811 had been called and located the line.
KCTV5 Investigates has learned OSHA is inspecting three companies that were on site.
- Alfra Company, a subcontractor working on the site
- Sellenriek Construction, contractor
- Liberty Utilities, gas line owner
OSHA has six months to complete the inspection and does not plan to provide an update until that is finished.
“We do know that when we responded there was a smell of gas in the air,” said McChristian.
Two hours later at 7:45 p.m., a house off of Franklin Avenue near 18th Street, exploded.
A child died and two others were injured.
READ MORE: Official offers condolences of child who died in Lexington home explosion, gas shut off across city
McChristian could not share a lot about the situation but said the crews determine what happens when gas leaks happen.
“There is no one specific process, every scenario creates its own obstacle so we just show our crews show up they are highly trained and then they just have to investigate what is going on and they call for additional support,” said McChristian.
He said residents weren’t evacuated when the leak was found.
“We take multiple reads, subsurface reads of gas we weren’t getting any indications of gas, if we got that we would start the evacuation process,” said McChristian.
“If we were warned ahead of time and it is just so important,” said Lexington resident, Lisa Ethington.
As of 6 p.m. Thursday, gas was still not back on for Lexington. Liberty Utilities said it will take some time before things are safely back on.
Many describe this as a community that knows each other and they expect people will come together to rebuild after this tragedy.
Multiple homes were damaged by the explosion and the City plans to work with those property owners.
The Missouri State Fire Marshal, Missouri Public Service Commission, and the NTSB are investigating as well as other local partners.
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