The Brief
- An NTSB report reveals that an underground natural gas line was not marked by locators before a contractor struck it, triggering a fatal Dallas apartment explosion on May 28.
- The catastrophic blast killed three people, injured six others, destroyed the building, and forced the emergency evacuation of 11 nearby residences.
- While the tight timeline of the leak and subsequent explosion has been mapped, the NTSB’s investigation into the definitive cause and liability remains ongoing.
DALLAS – A newly released preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reveals that an underground natural gas line was left unmarked prior to a fatal apartment building explosion in Dallas in late May.
NTSB report on Dallas apartment explosion
What we know:
The May 28 explosion and subsequent fire at 409 East 9th Street completely destroyed the apartment structure, killing three people and injuring at least six others. The blast also forced the emergency evacuation of eight nearby single-family homes and three adjacent apartment buildings.
According to federal investigators, a third-party contractor, Barba Drilling, was operating a drill rig for soil sampling near the apartment building on behalf of Engineering and Consulting Services Southwest, LLP (ECS) on the morning of the disaster. Although ECS had submitted a legally required Texas 811 utility-locating ticket on May 21, a week prior to the incident, the specific natural gas line that was struck had not been identified or marked by locators.…