Update on house explosion

[Big Frank]

There was a house here that exploded 3 years ago. I remember that it sounded like someone made a flying tackle into the front wall of my house, so hard that the metal porch railing rang out. This was 2,900 feet, .55 miles, away as the crow flies.

I found out tonight that 2 years ago, Michigan State Police investigators finished the investigation into the deadly house explosion, but have not determined a cause. A laboratory examination of the evidence recovered from the explosion was held by all interested parties, state police said. That included law enforcement, fire investigators, insurers, and private companies. Police said investigators and experts were able to examine each piece of evidence collected from the incident, including the natural gas supply piping and associated gas appliances that were removed from 3906 Hogarth Ave. Investigators determined a natural gas leak started from the home at 3906 Hogarth Ave, however, an ignition source could not be found due to the extensive damage and resulting explosion, police said. The explosion killed a 4-year-old girl and a 55-year-old woman while injuring two other people. At least 30 homes were damaged in the area.

Investigators are not sure where the natural gas leak originated in the house or what sparked the devastating explosion, which caused the deaths of 3-year-old Nuveah Lucas and 55-year-old Lisa Rochowiak. Several other neighbors were injured. Three houses on Hogarth Avenue were completely destroyed and five others sustained heavy damage. Dozens of residents on Flint's west side were evacuated for days after the explosion. Some residents still couldn't return home nearly 10 months after the Nov. 22 blast. Consumers Energy studied the area in the days after the explosion and determined an underground gas leak was not the cause. Investigators from the Flint Fire Department, Michigan State Police and other agencies determined a gas leak above ground led to the explosion.

A lawsuit is seeking a massive judgment two weeks after the deadly explosion on Hogarth Avenue in Flint. The Fieger Law Firm, led by Geoffrey Fieger who famously defended Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian, filed a $50 million lawsuit against Consumers Energy on Monday, alleging that the utility allowed natural gas to leak and build up before the blast on Nov. 22. "This leak in the main was allowed to dispel natural gas for days allowing it to accumulate that caused these the bombs that went off in Flint," said attorney James Harrington. The explosion caused the deaths of 55-year-old Lisa Rochowiak and 3-year-old Nu'Veah Lucas two weeks ago, according to the lawsuit. The case was filed on behalf of Rochowiak's family. "It came from their gas main off of the street that was allowed to migrate into the homes and kill these two individuals," Harrington said. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgGzq-_sAfQ

[Big Frank]

On March 1, 2024 Geoffrey Fieger's wife released a statement saying he was diagnosed with a heart condition that required surgery, and afterward he suffered a stroke. His long time partner James Harrington is currently running Fieger Law, while Fieger is recovering and in rehabilitation.  Geoffrey Fieger is the older brother of the late Doug Fieger, lead vocalist of the late-'70s/early-'80s rock group The Knack, best known for their hit song "My Sharona" in 1979. Doug Fieger underwent brain surgery in August 2006 to remove two tumors. He later was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, which required extensive chemotherapy and removal of half of his lung. His former wife, Mia, contributed to Fieger's care during his illness.

Fieger died at his home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Woodland Hills on February 14, 2010. He was 57 years old. In addition to his older brother, Geoffrey Fieger, survivors included his younger sister, Beth Falkenstein.

Fieger wrote "My Sharona" for Sharona Alperin, his not-yet girlfriend. Fieger and Alperin dated for four years, but they parted, married other people, and remained friends. Alperin visited him frequently in his final months. "People that meant so much to him in the music industry came to pay their respects to him," she said. "It was really beautiful."



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr_UqQ0RxmU

[Big Frank]

Here are the latest Google Maps pics of Hogarth Ave where the house blew up, and the other side of the block one street north.

[alfsauve]

Wow.  You'd think with that much gas accumulating over a period of time  someone would have smelled something.   

All our gas lines, at the street and to the house were replace in the last 5 years.  I'm in the basement (my man cave) every day so hopefully I can detect any leaks at least by smell.  Attic heater unit could leak but then hopefully the natural draft up there would thwart any buildup.

[Big Frank]

They moved my gas meter several years ago, right next to my roses. I haven't been digging around but once, a year or 2 ago I thought smelled gas by the meter. Since natural gas is odorless they add  methyl mercaptan to it. It's a natural substance found in feces of animals including humans, as well as in plant tissues, and in certain foods, such as some nuts and cheese. It is one of the chemical compounds responsible for bad breath and the smell of farts and is very flammable. The peculiar odor is produced by all humans after consuming asparagus, while the ability to detect it being one of many components in "asparagus pee" is in fact the genetic trait. The chemical components responsible for the change in the odor of urine show as soon as 15 minutes after eating asparagus. The level of distinct odor awareness (LOA) for methyl mercaptan is 0.0019 ppm so it doesn't take a very big gas leak to smell it. Just 1.9 Parts Per BILLION, 0.0019% in the air. I called the power company and they came out on Sunday evening or whatever it was and fixed it right away.

The explosive force of gas depends on the gas concentration in the air. Most explosions typically occur at approximately twice the lower explosive limit (LEL), where there is sufficient air for complete combustion, known as the stoichiometric concentration. This level is around 10 percent for natural gas, and for propane, it is about 4 percent, marking the conditions for the most intense and complete combustion. So, if you can smell it at 0.002% and the gas built up to 20%, 10,000 times as much, before it exploded, it must have been leaking for a long, long time and been ignored by everyone in the house. If it took a n hour to smell the leak, I wouldn't wait 1 year 7 weeks 4 days for it to blow up, I'd tell someone about it.

[Sponsor]

[Rastus]

Sounds fishy to me that no one smelled that much gas.  Maybe someone had not been treating the gas....it's a sucky job that workers will skip for any reason at all.  A slow long lasting gas leak might well go out in regular air exchanges of a home.  That having been said, natural gas (methane) is lighter than air and rises so if, for instance, you have a basement it should accumulate above the basement unless well sealed.  Now, if you have propane or butane then no, it will sink.

A simple electric motor will easily set off a gas leak.  Not knowing where the gas leak was when they have all the piping....says there was no problem with that specific piping.

I wonder about the piping internal to an oven, a stove, a heater or whatever.  I also wonder about a child turning a gas appliance and an adult catching it too late.

[Big Frank]

I'm just wondering how long the gas was leaking before it got to that magic percentage where it's explosive, and could anyone NOT notice it? I know that if you're exposed to the smell constantly, you get "nose-blind" to it, but it would really smell before it got to the point where you quit smelling it.

IIRC, mercaptan is 1 of 7 nasty smelling chemicals in a skunk's spray. It has one chemical for each day of the week. No wonder it lasts so long.