The legal fallout from a deadly explosion in Dallas is continuing to widen for one of the region's major natural gas utilities. According to FOX 26, Atmos Energy is now facing a second wrongful death lawsuit tied to an apartment explosion in the city, a blast that turned a residential building into the scene of a fatal disaster earlier this year.
The explosion at the center of the litigation dates back to the spring. The deadly blast tore through a Dallas apartment in May, and the mounting court cases against Atmos Energy stem directly from the deaths and destruction it left behind.
The newest complaint puts a human face on that loss. The suit was filed on behalf of a mother and her young son who were killed in the blast, adding their family to the list of those seeking to hold the utility accountable for the explosion in court.
At the heart of the family's case is a claim about how the disaster was set in motion. The family's attorney contends that Atmos failed to properly mark its underground gas lines, an alleged lapse that the lawsuit says had catastrophic consequences once work began at the site.
According to the complaint, that failure led directly to the explosion. The lawsuit says the unmarked or mismarked lines caused a drilling crew to accidentally rupture a gas line, triggering the massive fatal blast that killed the mother and her son and drew scrutiny to the utility's safety practices.
Atmos Energy, for its part, has pointed to a third party in response to the allegations. The company says it hired a contractor to handle the line markings, an account that appears set to become a central point of dispute as the wrongful death claims move forward.
With a second wrongful death lawsuit now on file, the case underscores the growing legal and public pressure on Atmos Energy over the May explosion. As the competing accounts of who was responsible for the gas line markings play out in court, the families of those killed are pressing for answers about how a routine day turned into a deadly blast.