Explosion Lawyers Alert Property Owners to Gas Line Danger From Heavy Snow
Explosion attorneys at Pritzker Hageman law firm are responding to a series of snow-related home explosions with new safety advice for housing landlords and homeowners: Stay vigilant during heavy snow and keep gas meters from getting buried.
At least nine dwellings in California and two in South Dakota were rocked by gas leaks in March, possibly due to heavy snow breaking pipes or clogging pressure-relief vents on external gas meters. Home explosions and fires broke out, injuring a husband and wife in the San Bernardino Mountains.
Later, in eastern Idaho, another snow-related explosion left one person with life-threatening burns. In that case in Franklin County, snow slid off a large building used for indoor riding. The snow landed on the gas line, fracturing it and forcing propane to leach into the interior of the building, officials said. When the building’s furnace kicked in to supply heat, it ignited an explosion so powerful that it leveled the building, blew windows out of neighboring houses and started a fire.
The Idaho fire marshal told East Idaho News that the person burned in the explosion was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
The explosion law team at Pritzker Hageman issued its own hazard warning about heavy snow because gas leaks of this nature are not well known. The safety advice is timely with the continuation of freakishly large snow events. In order to avoid accidents like this from occurring, Pritzker Hageman joins fire officials in encouraging businesses and property owners to build structures that protect propane gas lines and gas meters.
Contact the Pritzker Hageman Burn Injury Lawyers
Phone: 1-888-377-8900 | Text: 612-261-0856
Our award-winning explosion legal team handles cases for clients in every state in the country.
Landlord responsibility
Consider the importance of this advice for housing landlords. An apartment fire and explosion caused by a snow-packed gas meter would be especially dangerous given the risk of burn injuries from fire spreading and structures collapsing on multiple people in a single location. Apartment landlords are urged to protect their renters, even when snowstorms create travel difficulty for snow removal crews. People have every right to be safe in their apartments, especially when extreme weather isolates them at home for shelter.
The Pritzker Hageman explosion lawsuit team headed by attorney Eric Hageman has intervened on behalf of individuals and families to help survivors and next of kin with financial recovery. The law firm has over 40 years of experience investigating catastrophic explosions and fires.
Survivors smelled gas
When eight to 12 feet of snow pummeled the mountain communities around Lake Arrowhead, California, one couple found themselves unable to escape their home after it filled with fumes of natural gas. It happened in March 2023 and the local sheriff’s department was receiving similar reports of gas leaks. Roads were impassable – so much so that the gas company couldn’t respond to the emergencies. According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, the couple couldn’t get out of their house and spent the night in the living room because the gas odor was so potent in their bedroom. Ultimately, nine explosions and/or fires broke out in area residences.
The couple that spent the night in their living room were injured but survived.
Another snowstorm followed in South Dakota, with 10 feet of snow packing down on a residential gas meter outside a home in the Lake Madison area. The explosion was captured on video and released to the public by the Lake Madison Fire Department. It demonstrates demonstrate the hazard. The fire department said it was the second home explosion in the area caused by a snow-covered gas meter.
In the snow-related Idaho building explosion, firefighters from three different jurisdictions responded to an emergency at a 10,000-square-foot building in the unincorporated community of Thatcher. The explosion flattened the structure and put it up in flames. Idaho’s Cache Valley Daily news organization reported that the Thatcher explosion was similar to a propane leak that caused a home explosion in Cache Junction, killing one person and critically injuring two others. Investigators later determined that the home’s fuel line was damaged by snow sliding off the roof, the news outlet reported.
Talk to an Experienced Burn Injury Attorney
Pritzker Hageman is one of the few law firms in the country with experience representing burn injury clients. If you or someone you love was burned in a snow-related explosion, it is important to talk to a lawyer as soon as possible in order to preserve key evidence, and because laws called statutes of limitations may limit the amount of time you have to file a claim.
If you would like to talk to a burn injury attorney about what to expect from the legal process, please call 1-888-377-8900, text 612-261-0856, or fill out the form below.
