Centreville residents briefed on progress of gas leak after home explosion

As crews work around the clock to contain a gas leak suspected of causing a home explosion in Centreville, Virginia, residents of the area were briefed on the progress.

In a town hall meeting with more than 100 people, officials said natural gas levels both inside and outside the houses closest to the one that exploded have been decreasing.

They say that’s because two pipelines in that area, including a 30 inch diameter one they believe to be the problem, have either been cut off or shut off.

Billy Meyers says he is grateful to have been told by officials conducting the town hall meeting that his will be among the eight to 10 families able to get back into their homes tonight. They were evacuated following Sunday night’s explosion in the 14300 block of Quail Pond Court in Centreville.

“The oldest [kid] was a little concerned when we told him what happened,” Meyers said. “He was a little scared last night, but as time goes on, hopefully we’ll be able to explain a little easier and he’ll get a little more calm.”

At the meeting, a new evacuation map was released showing about 30 homes depicted in red with the notation, “evacuation.”

Officials confirmed three pipelines, 30, 40 and 42 inches in diameter, are buried under the grass covered right-of-way that has a street bisecting it.

Officials cautioned that the evacuation zone could increase to about a 550 foot radius — not the quarter mile rumored earlier Tuesday — if the Williams Company, which owns the pipelines, needs to do a bigger excavation.

“This is obviously a very scary thing for this community,” said Jeff McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County Supervisors, who came to the scene Tuesday evening. “And we’re just right now focused on getting, as quickly as we can, the two gas providers to discover why this happened.”

Many residents at the meeting expressed frustration and concern that they called Washington Gas a couple days prior to the explosion to complain about the smell of gas in the area.

The cause of the explosion has not been determined. The NTSB says it should have a preliminary report in about 30 days.