SAN ANTONIO — Months after an internet communications company contractor ruptured a gas line in Floresville, causing an explosion that destroyed one home and damaged two others, the city could reimburse residents who were impacted.
City Council discussed the final report from the Texas Railroad Commission in a closed-doors meeting Thursday, and still has to give final approval in January. It's still unclear how much money affected residents could receive, nor when they'll receive the funds.
According to a Railroad Commission report, crews with C4 Unlimited was laying fiber lines on the morning of July 16 when CenterPoint Energy, the local power provider, started investigating reports of an odor along the 1600 block of H Street. A technician later "detected gas venting out of the ground" at multiple locations nearby, prompting evacuations while crews started pinpointing the damaged area.
"At 2 p.m., while the construction crew was excavating at the isolation point, the main structure at 1605 H St. exploded," the commission's report says.
Emergency crews arrived to find three homes damaged and one still on fire. No major injuries were reported, but the Railroad Commission concluded the blast caused $517,016 in total damages.
It was later discovered that "the contractor employee did not mark the underground pipeline accurately at the time of the incident," causing the line to be struck. CenterPoint Energy also didn't report the damage in a timely manner the day of the explosion; according to state investigators' findings, the line break was confirmed at 2:05 p.m. but wasn't reported to the National Response Center until 3:31 p.m.
The utility was fined $27,500 as a result. It also is required to submit a "plan of correction" to the state by Dec. 19.
Floresville City Council is now planning to pay affected residents for damage, structural repairs and permit fees such as utility connections. It's unknown if payments could be capped, but notices were started to go out to those residents on Friday.