Natural Gas House Explosion

The origins for the cause for this explosion took place some twenty years prior to the actual explosion itself.

The defendants in this case were the manufacturer of a mechanical “Tee” and the company that installed the natural gas line service line to the client’s house. The service line leaked and was the source the explosive buildup of natural gas.

Like most house explosions, this explosion took place in the dead of winter.  The common factor causing house explosions to take place in the winter is essentially simple chemistry.  Natural gas - methane, is lighter than air and therefore, when it escapes its confines or pipes, it rises into the atmosphere.

In many cases when there have been gas leaks, people can smell the odor, which is not the actual gas itself, but is, in fact, the odorant which is made part of the system by the gas companies around the country. Natural gas itself is odorless.  When the ground is not frozen or covered with snow and ice the escaping gas is able to vent itself through the soil.  In the winter, when there is snow and ice, and the ground is frozen, the gas can no longer vent itself and it begins to build up pressure and it has to go somewhere.

There is always a small space around the service line that goes from the gas main to a home such as the one in question.  Ultimately, the trapped gas finds its release along the course of the service line and if there is any kind of crack or space in the foundation of the house where the service line rises to meet the regulator and meter, the gas will enter the house and begin to accumulate, in this instance, in the basement.

There is a secondary phenomena associated with escaping gas if it travels enough distance and through enough soil.  Often the soil can leach the odorant from the natural gas and it reduces the ability of someone to smell it when the gas escapes from ordinary gas lines.

In this particular case, the Tee connector or coupling, was a saddle-type Tee and it sits around the gas main.  It has a screw that can be screwed down from the top that punches a hole in the gas main and then the gas is allowed to escape up into the space above the main in the Tee itself and into the housing  where the service line to the house is attached.  The gas escaping from the puncture hole in the main enters the service line and goes from the main to the meter and regulator and into the house for consumption.

This particular device was made of hard plastic and the service line which was used by the company that installed the system was also made of plastic. 
The Tee itself has two separate models, one that has a metal stiffener in it and the other that comes strictly with the plastic.  If the Tee is to be screwed down onto the service line, and the service line is metal, the compression fitting does not partially collapse the service line; the rigidity of the metal service line makes for a tight seal.  When this particular device is to be used on a plastic service line, the female end of the Tee has to have a metal stiffener in it so that when the service line is installed and the compression fitting is tightened down so that the plastic line does not also compress, thereby leaving an inadequate and/or loose fitting.
In this particular instance, the company which was installing these devices in this system had both metal and plastic service lines and therefore, ordered the service Tee without the metal stiffeners and chose to apply the metal stiffeners manually when the device was to be used with a plastic service line.  The installation company failed to put the metal stiffener into tee and the service line to my clients’ home.  The metal stiffener is required by federal law to make sure that the fitting is tight and leak-proof.

The developer of the home where this system was installed then compounded the problem by planting a tree directly on top of the Tee and, with time, the tree roots, due to the space around the service line, began to grow around the service line and bend it.  As the service line was bent, it was slowly pulled out of the Tee, ultimately separating in the winter while the ground was snow covered and frozen and the gas had nowhere to go but along the small space surrounding the service line to the house.

The lawsuit was against the installation company for failing to install the system correctly and also against the manufacturer for selling the non-reinforced version of the Tee when they knew that it was going to be used in plastic applications and would be subject to failing without the addition of the stiffener.
Our expert witness, who was a professor of material science at Washington University, testified that the coupling was defective in this instance because any joint that is made with plastic, the joint must be as strong as the material itself and any failure should take place in the material and not in the joint.  In this particular instance, the joint failed before the material failed, and our expert’s testimony was that the device was therefore, defective when put into this particular application.
The thermostat at the house was on a timer and set to come on at approximately 6:30 A.M..  Whenever the main burners on a furnace ignite the furnace also sucks in air to feed the burners.  Unfortunately for my clients the air in the basement was laden with natural gas and when the burner ignited the flame from the furnace spread to the accumulated natural gas in the basement and it exploded.

The mother of the children was a nurse and was at work; and the father of the children, was in the garage, and was therefore outside the confines of the foundation of the house when the house exploded, and he received minor injuries from the explosion itself.  All three children in the house were burned, one of them, severely.  The father of the children received burns trying to find his screaming children in the aftermath of the explosion and ensuing fire.
The defendants on this case requested mediation and, after a day of mediation, the matter settled for an undisclosed amount.