x
Breaking News
More () »

Fear permeates Dallas neighborhood as natural gas line repair work continues

In a neighborhood that is no stranger to noise, you could hardly hear over the den of sound in the stretch of homes just north of Love Field on Monday.

In a neighborhood that is no stranger to noise, you could hardly hear over the den of sound in the stretch of homes just north of Love Field on Monday.

Just about everywhere you look in the subdivision sandwiched between Larga Dr to the west and Marsh Ln on the east, there are Atmos Energy trucks, contractors gutting the earth around the homes.

Work continued around the clock Monday to cut and cap old natural gas pipes and then begin to lay what Atmos has said is more than two and a half miles of new pipe.

The dozens of work trucks all throughout the subdivision arrived only after the deadly explosion on Espanola Drive early Friday, that killed 12-year old Linda Rogers.

Cristobal Romero lives one block over on Durango.

"I think all the neighbors now, they're scraed," Romero said.

This father says he watched as two of his neighbors homes burned on Wednesday, and then another on Thursday.

"You could smell the gas outside, you could smell it in the alley," Romero said. "So I actually thought about turning off my gas, but I didn't."

The evacuation order for his street and the ones surrounding Espanola was lifted late Saturday. Romero says you can stay here but it's not easy to live here right now.

"We can’t cook, we can’t take showers," Romero said.

The National Transportation Safety Board has investigators on the ground for a second day in the neighborhood. WFAA spotted one of the investigators in that alley between Durango and Espanola, examining the gas line that ran into the homes.

An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board examines an alley on Monday February 26, 2018 where an underground natural gas line is believed to have leaked leading to two fires and a deadly house explosion in a Dallas neighborhood.

The Texas Railroad Commission confirmed to WFAA it also has two investigators on the ground as well.

"We're working in close cooperation with federal and local investigators," a spokesperson told WFAA. "The RRC will determine if there were any violations of our rules."

Atmos Energy had not provided an update Monday on the repair work being done, the accident investigation, or a possible natural gas leak about a half-mile from the explosion.

More than 90 units were evacuated Sunday at the Chapel Creek Apartments on Webb Chapel after Atmos notified Dallas Fire-Rescue of a possible leak. That evacuation stretched into a second day on Monday with no timetable for when tenants could return.

Meanwhile back on Durango, Miguel Gonzales, says he opted to stay in a hotel last night, but plans to stay in his home tonight, even without heat.

"I've been hearing about strange people coming around here at night, and all my stuff is here, so I don't want to lose it."

Before You Leave, Check This Out