Deadly 2007 Saratoga Springs home explosion shares similarities with South Jordan incident

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The home explosion that killed a teenager and stunned the community of South Jordan seemed to be the result of a rare set of circumstances.

On Wednesday, federal investigators reported that gas workers identified a leak 150 feet away from the house that exploded and that gas extended underground 250 feet from that leak.

Having a gas leak well away from a house lead to a home explosion isn’t necessarily a unique circumstance, either.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by KSL 5 TV (@kslnews)

Another gas-related explosion

On Feb. 6, 2007, a home at 953 Prairie Dog Way in Saratoga Springs exploded after crews worked to repair a damaged 6-inch gas line. According to reports from the official investigation, the gas line was located 50 feet from that home.

The explosion occurred 30 minutes after the repairs when one of the residents and a Questar worker entered the home.

“To describe something like that as ‘sad’ and ‘tragic’ is woefully inadequate,” said Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon, who was first on-scene that day. “The house was fully engulfed, almost completely destroyed.”

Firefighters have said gas, when trapped underground, can travel and potentially enter homes through access points along pipes.

“Somehow, from what I understand, the gas leached through the ground and into the home,” Cannon recalled of the Saratoga Springs explosion.

Cannon, the sheriff’s office’s public information officer, said he regularly shares advice on a variety of public safety-related matters, but it was hard to know what to say about circumstances that are so unexpected and happen so rarely.

“How do you protect against something that would be 100% unexpected,” Cannon said. “I sure hope things are being done to try to figure out how this kind of thing can be prevented.”