Tenant's Failure To Shut Off Gas After Disconnecting Clothing Dryer When Vacating Premises Leads To Explosion, Killing Property Inspector, Leveling Home, Severely Damaging Neighboring Houses; Officials Rule Incident Accidental

In Omaha, Nebraska, the Omaha World-Herald reports:

• As natural gas filled a Benson home for two days, a voicemail waited on Clara Bender-Rinehart’s work cellphone alerting her to the potential danger.
  
  Her relatives and friends may never know whether she heard that message.
  
  The property inspector was killed midday Monday when the gas ignited, exploding as she stood in the kitchen. Officials have concluded that her death was the result of an accident.
  
  Natural gas leaking from the gas line of a disconnected clothes dryer was the cause of the blast that occurred about 12:15 p.m. Monday, Omaha fire officials announced Wednesday.
  
  The explosion leveled the home at 3858 N. 65th St. and caused severe damage to others.
  
  Bender-Rinehart, 30, an employee of Certified Property Management, had been inspecting her fourth home Monday.
  
  The Omaha Fire Department completed its investigation Wednesday and released a time line that started with an evicted tenant moving out and ended with the explosion.
  
  On Saturday, [the tenant] moved out of the house with help from friends, fire officials said in a press release. A clothes dryer was one of the last items removed, investigators said.
  
  The dryer was disconnected from the gas line, but the gas line was not shut off, allowing gas to leak into the home.
  
  Later Saturday, two friends of [the tenant] went back to the home to grab a couple of items and told [her] that they had smelled natural gas.
  
  [She] then left a voicemail on Bender-Rinehart’s work cellphone late Saturday, but investigators don’t know if Bender-Rinehart heard it.
  
  Fire investigators found Bender-Rinehart’s phone and Omaha police listened to [the tenant]’s voicemail, said Fire Battalion Chief Tim McCaw.
  
  Chief Deputy Douglas County Attorney Brenda Beadle said that because authorities ruled the explosion to be an accident, no charges would be filed.
  
  Mark McDonald, president of NatGas Consulting in Boston, which investigates natural gas explosions, said those removing the dryer most likely would have known the gas was leaking.
  
  “Once you disconnect the gas line, you’re going to know it,” McDonald said. “It’s going to smell, it’s going to make a hissing sound.”
  
  McDonald is not directly involved in the investigation and offered analysis based on dozens of gas explosion cases his company has investigated.
  
  He said residents should hire a licensed professional to handle appliances connected to gas lines and install a methane detector that would sound even with small amounts of natural gas present.
  
  Likewise, Bender-Rinehart ought to have been able to smell the gas, he said. The air should still have smelled of natural gas if the gas was odorized properly.
  
  The gas would have reached an explosive level, McDonald said.
  
  Omaha fire officials couldn’t pinpoint the exact ignition source, but McDonald said it could be anything — a cellphone call, light switch, static electricity or something else.
  
  He said residents should always call the utility company any time they smell gas.
  
  Metropolitan Utilities District officials could have prevented the explosion even if they had been notified Monday, after two days of natural gas leaking, McDonald said, although it would have been difficult.
  
  “You basically have a bomb sitting there,” he said.
  
  Jeremy Aspen, the president of the management company, said he and another co-worker are sure that Bender-Rinehart knew to call MUD if she smelled gas.
  
  ***
  Natural gas fueled the home’s furnace, water heater, stove and clothes dryer.
  
  [Aspen] said the house was rented without a washer or dryer, which means any washer or dryer in the house probably belonged to the tenant. “We didn’t have a dryer there,” Aspen said.
  
  ***
  Aspen said that although disconnecting the gas line from the dryer was the “catalyst” that led to the blast, he recognizes that there was no malice involved.
  
  “To assign blame for an accident probably isn’t going to get us any closer to having this resolved in our minds, and of course it doesn’t bring Clara back,” he said.
  
  Bender-Rinehart’s husband, Jake Rinehart, expressed a similar sentiment.
  
  “This was an accident and our family is not angry and we don’t blame anybody for this situation, as tragic as it is,” he told the news media Wednesday. “It just happens. I only hope that we can all learn from this going forward, not only being more cautious in daily routines but also in the procedures and steps taken to ensure the safety of employees and people we serve.”

For the story, see Voicemail left on housing inspector's phone warned of gas in home that exploded as she stood in the kitchen.