YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — A worker working in the basement of an Ohio building intentionally cut a gas line without knowing it was under pressure before a deadly explosion this week, the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday.
NTSB board member Tom Chapman said crews were in the basement removing pipes and other old equipment and that they didn’t smell gas before they started cutting the pipes, but realized there was a problem after the third cut.
At that point, workers sounded a fire alarm and urged residents and bank employees to evacuate. Chapman said the explosion happened six minutes after the pipe was cut. Investigators are trying to determine why the pipe became pressurized.
The explosion on Tuesday afternoon ripped apart much of the first floor of Reality Tower, killing one bank employee and injuring several others.
The first floor of the building collapsed into the basement and the facade was blown across the street, leaving bricks, glass and other debris scattered on the sidewalk outside the 13-story building, which houses a Chase Bank branch on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors.
