2013 Marks Village gas explosion
The 2013 Marks Village gas explosion was a major accident caused by deteriorated natural gas piping which killed one person, injured several others, and caused significant structural damage to one building in the Marks Village housing project in Gate City at 2:29 AM on December 17, 2013.
The explosion occurred inside unit 80, which occupied half of a 2-story duplex on the southwest corner of Joppa Court and 65th Courtway South (map). It was caused when either the furnace or a pilot light inside the unit ignited a build-up of natural gas that entered from below the floor slab. Unit 80 was almost completely destroyed in the explosion and the adjoining unit 79 was heavily damaged.
Tyrennis LaVal Mabry and her fiancé, Darryle Brown, were sleeping in a downstairs bedroom in unit 80. She was killed and he was critically injured. Three others, sleeping upstairs, were thrown of the apartment. Two of them were seriously injured. Six residents of unit 79 all escaped with only minor injuries. Debris from the explosion caused additional minor damage to nearby buildings.
The duplex where the blast occurred was set ablaze by the explosion. That fire was extinguished by the Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service by 3:16 AM. A separate large torch-like blaze at a pipe adjacent to the building continued to burn until Alagasco was able to isolate it by closing a valve upstream.
The incident was investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, which oversees safety issues related to pipeline distribution systems. The build-up of gas that caused the explosion was traced to a fracture in a 2-inch diameter cast-iron distribution pipe near the duplex, caused by pressure from a tree root on a section of pipe weakened by rust. The gas permeated adjacent soil and percolated through the ground and entered the apartment either through the floor slab or by entering sewer waste pipes and bubbling up through water traps under pressure. The soil apparently absorbed enough of the odorant added to the otherwise odorless gas that residents detected only a faint smell prior to the explosion. Immediately following the explosion, Alagasco workers also detected several smaller leaks in the vicinity which may have contributed to the incident.
Background
The cast iron gas distribution system at Marks Village was installed during the project's original construction in 1951-1952. Following a fatal gas explosion in Allentown, Pennsylvania in February 2011, the NTSB has recommended that utilities replace all cast iron gas piping with more durable materials. The Alabama Public Service Commission requested in 2012 that Alagasco accelerate its efforts to replace its obsolete pipe system. As of 2011 the utility still had 928 miles of cast iron pipe and was replacing 41 miles per year, on average, with an expectation that it would complete the process by 2031.
Residents of Marks Village had reported smelling gas to the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District and to Alagasco numerous times between 2010 and 2013, and some repairs had been made to in-unit and below-ground pipes. The utility also repaired all leaks in main and service pipes detected by its own inspectors during scheduled maintenance in May 2011. None of the 2011 repairs, and none of the subsequent reports received by the utility specifically related to units 79 and 80. Residents of those two units do claim to have reported smelling gas to the HABD, but no record of those reports has been found.