Worker calmly reveals gas leak in 911 call before blast
Published 3:00 pm Friday, April 12, 2019
- Firefighters and emergency personnel work the scene of a building fire in downtown Durham, N.C., Wednesday, April 10, 2019. Authorities say emergency officials responded to an explosion and fire possibly caused by a gas leak. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Emergency calls related to an explosion that leveled a North Carolina building start with a worker calmly telling a dispatcher the crew hit a gas line.
The 911 call released Friday starts with the worker saying: “we have hit a gas service.” The person gives the address for the building that eventually exploded and collapsed. The call is time-stamped about 30 minutes before the explosion happened Wednesday.
The Durham Police Department has said that a contractor boring along a sidewalk hit the gas line and caused the leak. It’s not clear what made the gas ignite.
Neither the worker’s nor the contractor’s name is clear from the emergency call.
One person was killed and 25 injured in the blast.
