Explosion at Fort Benjamin Harrison

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Case Result

In an effort to track down a natural gas leak in a residential section of Army Ft. Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, an untrained army employee turned a pipeline isolation valve in the wrong direction, allowing gas to fill an abandoned steel pipeline. The gas leaked from the abandoned pipeline into a residential building, where it ignited and exploded, killing two and severely burning several others. We represented three of the burn victims and led a team of other plaintiff’s attorneys through the liability investigation of this explosion. We determined that not only had the valve been turned the wrong direction but also that the army lacked established guidelines for operating the gas system and had been working with inaccurate pipeline maps.