Gas Leak Discovered Adjacent To Dallas House Explosion
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DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - Investigators released new information Tuesday about an explosion that nearly leveled a home in the Pleasant Grove area of Dallas.
Firefighters say Atmos Energy found a gas leak in the yard of the home in the 9400 block of Eloise Street, near Memory Lane. Crews spent much of the day digging in an area next to the home.
As for the house, firefighters say it's too dangerous to even get close to it.
Shontavia Robinson's relatives were living in the home. "He said that he went to cut the light on for the restroom and that's when he heard the boom, the big loud explosion," she said.
Robinson explained that her brother and grandmother had just arrived at the house and were settling in for the night.
Neighbors were able to pull 76-year-old Rosetta Clark from her bedroom window, before they realized her grandson was missing.
"A few of the neighbors over there helped," Clark's daughter, Rosalind Todd, said pointing. "They heard him knock something over or throw something, and they realized that someone else was in there."
On Tuesday, family members collected the few photos they could find in the rubble. One positive moment came as firefighters helped retrieve a lost cell phone, but relatives say the real blessing is no one was killed.
"They still made it. We can replace a lot of these things, but you can't replace a person. So, we're happy that they are with us," Robinson said.
Atmos said they had no reports of gas leaks in the last week, but firefighters say a relative of the victims told them she did smell gas last week, when road crews were working on a nearby street.
Atmos is urging anyone who smells natural gas to leave the area and report it immediately.
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