YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The National Transportation Safety Board found that a cut by a scrap removal crew into an active Enbridge natural gas service line that was incorrectly documented as inactive was the probable cause of the May 2024 Realty Tower explosion.
“Contributing to the severity of the accident were Chase Bank’s emergency procedures that did not require employees to immediately evacuate upon being alerted to a natural gas leak,” the completed report, dated Aug. 11 and released Thursday, reads.
The May 28, 2024, explosion killed Akil Drake, 27, a Chase Bank employee, and injured several others.
The NTSB “determines that the probable cause of the explosion and subsequent fatality was a cut by a scrap-removal crew into an active Enbridge Inc. service line, which was incorrectly documented as having been abandoned years earlier by the pipeline owner at the time, Dominion Energy Inc.” which allowed natural gas to leak into the building where an unknown source ignited it, the report said.
It also said the bank’s emergency procedures required immediate evacuation for certain situations including fire, smoke or an activated fire alarm. But it did not require immediate evacuation for a natural gas leak “and assigned less urgency to such a situation, allowing employees to personally evaluate whether to evacuate immediately.”
Video footage shows that one employee evacuated after being notified of the gas leak about 2:42 p.m. but others remained in the building for about two minutes, the report said.
“Consequently, seven employees were still inside the building when it exploded about 2:44 p.m., one of whom was killed,” the NTSB completed report determined. “Chase Bank’s emergency procedures did not adequately inform employees of the extreme hazard associated with a natural gas leak and the need for immediate evacuation. Had the bank employees evacuated immediately upon being alerted of the gas leak, they may have escaped injury.”
It said that after the explosion, Chase revised its emergency guidelines and employee training “to require immediate evacuation during incidents involving gas leaks.”
A JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman wrote in an email Thursday: “We’re reviewing the report and have the deepest commitment to the safety of all our employees.”
Enbridge released a statement Thursday afternoon which reads in part:
“Enbridge is grateful to the agency for its thorough investigation and findings. Our deepest sympathies remain with the family of Akil Drake, who lost their loved one. We will always remember the injured, and the many residents and businesses impacted.
We share the NTSB’s commitment to safety. At Enbridge, safety is a core value we relentlessly pursue on behalf of our communities, customers, contractors, partners and employees. We work every day to improve our safety performance, and we’re engaged in a thorough review of the agency’s findings and recommendations. Support of the NTSB’s guidance will ultimately make our industry safer.
We’re unable to comment further due to ongoing litigation.”
Under a section of the report titled, “Lessons Learned,” NTSB officials reported that, “Natural gas pipeline operators must accurately document their pipeline abandonment and deactivation activities to prevent pipeline damage and accidental releases similar to this accident.”
After the Realty explosion, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio oversaw Enbridge’s excavation of 10 service lines that were documented as abandoned around the same time as the accident service line.
“Enbridge found that two of these service lines were still pressurized with gas,” the NTSB reported. “Enbridge also reported after the accident that it was investigating 5,951 other pipelines that were documented as abandoned but whose records contained inconsistent or unconfirmed data. The company found that 79 of these pipelines were active. Enbridge subsequently properly abandoned them according to the new procedure and updated their corresponding records.”
In August 2024, the company issued a pipeline safety alert advising crews about a revised practice for disconnecting and abandoning service lines. Before completing a service line cut order, “the pipeline must be exposed for visual confirmation that the service line has been effectively cut from the main and capped off. Training materials have been updated to reinforce the revised practice. Enbridge also is installing warning tags on their interior piping assets to alert customers of the presence of pressurized gas and how to contact the gas company.”
Regarding response to the explosion, the report said city fire and police departments, Emergency Medical Transport, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and Boardman Fire Department responded, established incident command and transported victims to local hospitals. The incident commander requested Enbridge shut off the gas and crews from the company shut off the gas to the immediate area.
The incident commander requested personnel from the First Energy–Ohio Edison to shut off power to the Realty Building about 3:06 p.m., the NTSB report said.
“About 4:19 p.m., the incident commander paused search and rescue operations because water was filling the Realty Building basement from a water main that had broken in the explosion, and electricity in the building was still on,” it said. “Ohio Edison records indicate that crews had been dispatched about 3:17 p.m. but left when they were unable to gain access to the accident scene.”
Ohio Edison personnel returned to the scene and shut off power about 6:25 p.m., and search and rescue operations resumed.
“The delay of more than 2 hours might have been avoided with better communication among Ohio Edison crews and external incident commanders,” the agency reported.
The electric company also revised its employee training courses on emergency processes following the explosion, “to reiterate the importance of coordinating and communicating with external incident commanders during all incidents…,” the NTSB report said.
It said the agency does not assign fault or blame for an accident or incident. Its investigations are fact-finding proceedings.