Residents blast city response after home explosion leaves woman critically injured
By Marvin Hurst
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LAKE DALLAS, TX (KTVT) — City leaders in Lake Dallas got more than an earful from residents who believe they were failed during a crisis in late March when a house explosion critically injured Jessica Bailey Lopez.
“A young woman’s life is forever altered. Traumatized for something that was completely preventable,” Sarah Parker said.
Parker joined many others who filled the city council chambers in Lake Dallas. She said the response on March 19 demonstrated the city’s inability to respond to its citizenry in any emergency.
“What is your plan to prevent this from ever happening again? What is your plan to notify this community? What is your emergency action plan because there is zero,” she said.
The explosion shook part of the city. Lopez was airlifted to a hospital, where she remains in critical condition. During the chaos, emergency responders evacuated 40-50 people, according to Lake Dallas City Manager Luke Olson.
Wendy Orozco said she was left without essential information about the safety of her home, the length of displacement, or even where to go for assistance. She said her friends got it worse from a rude officer who evacuated them.
“When the daughter answered the door, she was told she must evacuate,” Orozco said. “She said, ‘It’s not that easy, my mom has stage four cancer, it’s going to take a minute.”
A councilman said officers were moving to save lives. Orozco said he pointed the family north even though they had nowhere to go. Fortunately, they were able to spend some time at the Orozco home.
“We are all victims. We are all victims within our own little community,” Parker said.
Atmos Energy’s Vice President of Public Affairs, Kelly Beigler, and Vice President of Operations for the MidTex Region, Kyle Slaughter, gave an update on their findings. Slaughter said the cause of the explosion remains under investigation.
“While the investigation into the event at 620 Moseley is ongoing, we want to share with you what we have learned to date,” Slaughter said. “We discovered a leak on our gas main under Wilson Drive near 620 Moseley.”
He said a portion of the pipe was sent to the lab for analysis. Slaughter described the section of pipe as “short” and owned by a “predecessor.” He said that the company worked to remove the kind of pipe discovered on Wilson, south of the explosion, but somehow missed this portion made in the 70s.
According to Slaughter, they acquired the gas distribution system in 2004 and were unaware of its existence. In the meantime, he said the company removes this piping when found. They are removing two miles of it in Lake Dallas.
As for a disaster or an emergency plan, Olson said the city does have one. It does not have a system to alert residents in the event of an emergency. He said they would consider a system during budgeting, which is coming up.
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