‘Ineffective response’ from BGE led to deadly Bel Air home explosion, report finds

Federal investigators found that a communication breakdown and “ineffective response” from Baltimore Gas and Electric and its parent company led to a fatal home explosion in Harford County in 2024.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a report that multiple people reported smelling gas in the hours leading up to the explosion. But gas technicians did not investigate the Bel Air home where the explosion occurred.

The gas leak, left unaddressed, caused the home at 2300 Arthurs Woods Drive to explode at 6:48 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2024. It killed homeowner Ray Corkran Jr., 73, and Jose Rodriguez-Alvarado, 35, a BGE contractor who responded to an electrical outage at the home. Three others were injured, and nearby homes were damaged, displacing about a dozen families.

Nick Alexopulos, a spokesperson for BGE, said in a statement that the company had “procedures in place intended to ensure suspected gas leaks were promptly escalated and investigated” but “those procedures were not followed as intended” in this case.

The night before the incident, a gas technician was sent to another house in the neighborhood after reports of a gas odor in the area, investigators said.

Meanwhile, an electrical technician at the home where the explosion happened also reported that they smelled gas, but that report was not relayed to the gas technician sent to investigate the smell at the other location in the neighborhood.

The next morning at around 6:08 a.m., a worker with Harford County made multiple calls to Exelon, BGE’s parent company, to report “natural gas odorant” and “sounds of gas hissing,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board report. No one answered “several” calls that the worker made to Exelon, the report said.

The safety board found that the call center agent to whom the call was routed had been drinking alcohol before his unscheduled overtime shift and fell asleep at his desk.

Eventually, the county worker’s supervisor reached Exelon and reported the gas smell and hissing sound, prompting an immediate dispatch of an Exelon gas technician and the Harford County Fire Department.

But the home exploded while firefighters were on their way. The Exelon technician arrived about 20 minutes later.

BGE said in a statement that it has made several changes since the explosion, including a new call center system, 24/7 gas leak monitoring, and enhanced training for call handlers, among other improvements.

“While no action can undo the devastating loss caused by this tragedy, we are committed to learning from it and continuously improving our systems, processes, and safety culture,” the BGE statement said. “Our focus remains on protecting our customers, employees, contractors, and the communities we serve every day.”