YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The National Transportation Safety Board’s final report on what caused the deadly May 2024 natural gas explosion of Realty Tower shared few new details.
The agency does not assign fault or blame but points out a series of missteps and flawed procedures that led to the explosion and its aftermath.
Among the lessons learned were that natural gas operators must accurately document pipeline abandonment and deactivation activities to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again. Chase Bank revised its emergency guidelines and FirstEnergy revised training courses for its employees on emergency processes.
NTSB’s conclusions hardly represent the end of the story. The agency does not assign blame, but its findings are guaranteed to figure into the suits and countersuits still in play in the courts, regardless of the report’s mention that its conclusions aren’t admissible as part of civil action.
Further, downtown Youngstown’s recovery remains a work in progress. New apartments to replace the units that were destroyed after Realty’s demolition remain months away, and a gravel lot sits on Central Square in the building’s place.
The Realty explosion led to the death of Chase Bank employee Akil Drake, injuries to nine others and, eventually, the demolition of the 100-year-old building, a downtown landmark that in recent years housed upscale apartments.
The NTSB report notes that its accident investigations are fact-finding proceedings and are not conducted for the purposes of determining the rights or liabilities of any person. But as expected, NTSB determined the explosion’s probable cause was a cut by a scrap removal crew into an active Dominion Energy – now Enbridge – service line that was incorrectly documented as being abandoned.
It also called into question FirstEnergy/Ohio Edison’s response to the request to cut off power to the building. It was shut off at 6:25 p.m., more than three hours after requested. Also questioned were procedures by Chase Bank which called for employees to evaluate their level of safety before evacuating rather than immediately leaving the building upon detection of a gas leak.
Nothing will replace the life of the young man who died that day nor the homes lost. At best, the report will provide a path for justice to be served and to hopefully prevent future tragedies.