Doctors are saying she ll be just fine, said Pulte President Thomas Standke. Dale Wegleitner, Eagan fire marshal, has concluded his investigation into the explosion and determined that there was a crack in a natural gas line near the house. Natural gas migrated through the ground and into the house, Wegleitner said. He doesn t know how long the crack existed. Wegleitner said that the explosion was triggered when Alsides activated the house s security system, creating an electrical charge that ignited the gas.
Natural gas is odorless, so an odorant is added to make it easier to detect leaks.
In this case, the odorant which smells like rotten eggs had been filtered out as the gas seeped through the ground, Wegleitner said. The gas line is maintained by Peoples Natural Gas, which has 21,000 Eagan customers. Peoples Natural Gas spokesman George Minter said the manner in which the gas migrated through the ground and lost its odorant is highly unusual. Wegleitner s investigation determined that gas had also leaked into two neighboring model homes, but none of the occupied homes nearby. Other gas lines in the neighborhood have been tested and no other leaks were detected, Wegleitner said.