Natural Gas Explosion Destroys Home

A natural gas explosion ripped through a home Tuesday, destroying the structure and injuring two people. These explosions are more common that one would think, and they can cause massive damage to your home or Georgia workplace.
Natural gas leaking from an underground pipe apparently seeped into the home’s basement. The gas then gathered in the basement rafters, until something ignited it, causing the explosion.

Natural gas does not have an odor when it comes out of the ground—the odor is added by producers and distributors, as a safety measure. That odor, called “ethyl mercaptan,” is a warning agent in the event of leakage or spills. Often, when a natural gas explosion occurs and the home occupants do not escape, it’s because they didn’t “smell” the gas—often a result of the absence of ethyl mercaptan.

Natural gas hazards occur not just in the home, but also at the workplace, and can lead to Georgia work injury. If you are working around natural gas and don’t smell the odor in the gas, you should speak to your supervisor and have your employer pull the natural gas source out of service to determine whether ethyl mercaptan was properly added to the gas. Failure to do so could lead to an explosion.