Report: Odorless natural gas filled home days before fatal 2024 South Jordan home explosion

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A gas leak that spread through the ground become odorless and led to a fatal South Jordan home explosion.
• A report suggests natural gas alarms could have prevented the 2024 tragedy.
• Enbridge Gas faces a lawsuit; it is updating protocols and promoting alarms.

SOUTH JORDAN — Natural gas alarms could have identified an odorless gas leak prior to a fatal home explosion two years ago in South Jordan, according to an investigative report released Tuesday.

On Nov. 6, 2024, an explosion from a gas leak and subsequent house fire claimed the life of 15-year-old Bingham High School student Logan Hansen.

The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report two weeks after the explosion, saying the source of the gas leak was a gas line located about 150 feet northeast of the home, installed in the 1970s.

In its latest report, the National Transportation Safety Board says a natural gas alarm could have helped prevent the fatal explosion.

Residents of the destroyed home reported feeling dizzy, having flu-like symptoms and headaches in the days leading up to the explosion. The water heater in the home also stopped working, and the family was unable to relight the pilot light. When a candle was lit just a day before the disaster, the flame was unusually high so they extinguished it, a family told the Utah deputy state fire marshal.

The residents told the fire marshal they did not smell any gas odor prior to the home explosion and no gas odors were reported in the area. The home also did not have any natural gas alarms.

"Although the exact timing of the leak could not be determined, the residents' observations of physical symptoms, inability to relight the basement water heater, and an unusually high candle flame before the accident suggest that natural gas may have been present in the home for at least three days before the explosion," the report says.

On Nov. 6, the flammable natural gas and air mixture ignited in the southwest quadrant of the basement, where investigators determined the only credible ignition source was the furnace, as the water heater had been turned off. The furnace control valve was found to have suffered significant thermal damage, which the report says is "consistent with it being the ignition source."

"When an underground natural gas pipeline leak occurs rapidly, it can be difficult to safeguard against. Natural gas alarms can provide an early warning of natural gas leaks inside nearby structures and can alert the building occupants to take immediate safety actions," the National Transportation Safety Board said.

Natural gas alarms could have alerted residents to a potential problem, "reducing or eliminating the fatal consequences of the explosion," the report states.

About 21 hours after the accident, Enbridge technicians located a crack in a 1976 4-inch-diameter Aldyl A gas main near the home that "allowed natural gas to leak and fuel the home explosion," the report states. That specific type of piping from before 1983 is prone to cracking and it is difficult to predict failures in them, the board added.

A rock impingement likely led to the crack in the pipe and "the crack breached the outer surface in a single abrupt event." This led to the pipe suddenly releasing up almost 50 standard cubic feet per minute of gas, causing natural gas to migrate in the ground more than 150 feet from the leak and into the home, the report says.

Federal regulations require that natural gas be odorized in distribution systems so the public can be alerted to leaks. But since no smell was reported, it is likely the odorants were stripped from the leaking natural gas as it permeated through the ground before it entered the home, according to the report.

"Although odorant can act as an early warning of a gas release to prevent an explosion and fire, it has been known to become depleted when traveling through soil, as it did in this accident," the report said.

'Insufficient safeguards'

"Contributing to the severity (of the accident) were insufficient safeguards to mitigate hazards presented by the leak," according to the report.

Prior to the accident, Enbridge had safeguards of periodic leak surveys, odor complaint responses and targeted replacement projects. "However, none of these strategies proved effective for this scenario," the report said.

The most recent leak survey was two years before the accident. But because the crack in the pipe occurred so rapidly, it went undetected. The 21 hours it took Enbridge to locate and isolate the leak increased the risk to nearby residents and first responders in the area, the safety board said.

The parents of Logan Hansen filed a lawsuit against Enbridge Gas last June, claiming the company was negligent in not maintaining the gas line and preventing leaks and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on their family. Enbridge has denied the allegations and the case is ongoing.

According to the report, Enbridge has since updated its risk assessment protocols for Aldyl A piping and used advanced mobile leak detection systems to conduct leak surveys on all Aldyl A gas piping.

The company said it is increasing its budget to replace all high-risk piping and has adjusted its response resources to improve efficiency when isolating leaks. The company is also requiring additional testing on gas assets and has been promoting installation of natural gas alarms in collaboration with the American Red Cross, the report said.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Cassidy Wixom

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Cassidy Wixom is an award-winning reporter for KSL. She covers Utah County communities, arts and entertainment, and breaking news. Cassidy graduated from BYU before joining KSL in 2022.