Back at the end of May there was an interesting news story about a house in Cleburne that exploded when one of the residents lit a match to light a cigarette.  The reason it was interesting was that the house was all-electric and there was no gas service.

Now, a report in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram explains how the gas got into the house.

How the gas got into the house

There had been a natural gas leak in front of the house for an undetermined amount of time, according to Wright’s report. Because the ground was so wet from recent rains, the gas was unable to escape through the usual cracks and openings in the soil and dissipate. Instead, it moved farther underground, along a path next to a new waterline and eventually into a sewer line leading into the house.

The sewer line was made of clay tile, which is “by nature full of gaps and imperfections that would allow the gas to enter the line,” according to the report.

A condensation line from an air-conditioning unit had been dropped into an open sewer pipe. Because the line was not sealed properly, the air-conditioning unit worked as a pump, drawing the natural gas from the sewer line and distributing it through air-conditioning ducts, Wright wrote.

Why no odor?

Natural gas is odorless. For safety reasons, Atmos Energy adds an odorant to its product. The odorant, mercaptan, gives gas a sulfurlike smell.

The gas inside the Pawliks’ house didn’t have an odor because “after traveling that far through soil and water the mercaptan … could be washed or scrubbed out by the filtering action of the soil,” according to the report.

When the story first came out I was pretty sympathetic to the residents, since it sounded like this was an out-of-the-blue occurrence.  However, this doesn’t appear to be the case:

A homeowner who was inside his Cleburne house when it exploded—resulting in his wife’s death—had been told not to light any more cigarettes just 45 minutes before the explosion occurred, according to a city fire marshal’s report.

David Pawlik called the Cleburne Fire Department’s nonemergency number between 3:30 and 4 p.m. May 29, telling fire inspector Scott Oesch that “every time my wife lights a cigarette, a blue flame shoots up to the ceiling,” according to a memo written by Oesch on May 31.

Oesch said he would check out the situation and told Pawlik not to light any more matches.

Pawlik’s wife, Hazel, wanted to smoke “a quick cigarette” before the inspector arrived. Pawlik lit a match, Fire Marshal Bill Wright reported. There was a blue flash, and the match went out. He lit another match, and there was an explosion of blue flames throughout the house at 632 Woodard Ave.

Between 15 and 20 seconds later, after the fire penetrated the ceiling into the attic, there was a more violent explosion, ripping a huge hole in the roof.

Hazel Pawlik, 64, died June 2 from her injuries. Four other family members were injured.

Hmm….  a “blue flame shooting up to the ceiling” sounds like what I’d call a clue.  Sure, they don’t have gas in the house, but you’d think that if you saw flames in the house you’d get the idea that there was some sort of flammable gas involved.  If it had been me, I’d have gotten out of the house immediately and called 911 from somewhere else.  I definitely wouldn’t light another cigarette.