2019 Durham gas explosion

At 10:06 am, an explosion was reported near downtown Durham. The sound of the explosion was captured by one of the cameras facing the nearby 11-foot-8 bridge.^[8]

The damage was widespread, as businesses roughly two blocks away suffered damage, although this was mostly limited to shattered windows. Fifteen buildings suffered damage in and around the Brightleaf District.^[9] The coffee shop, Kaffeinate, was reduced to rubble as a result of the blast. An adjacent building housing a Porsche collection was destroyed. An office building directly in front of the coffee shop suffered extensive damage to its interior and exterior. The explosion was felt from several miles away, and a large smoke cloud from the resulting fire was seen from miles away. The smoke cloud was detected by local weather radar.

The Durham School of the Arts suffered damage to its interior, although no injuries were reported.

Twenty-five people were treated for injuries and at least 10 people were sent to local hospitals. Both Duke Regional Hospital and Duke University Hospital received five patients. Kong Lee, the owner of Kaffeinate, was killed in the blast, as he prepared to evacuate the store. Jay Rambeaut, a Dominion Energy first responder, was sent to UNC Medical Center, where he died from his injuries on April 25.^[10]

Five of the injured were in critical condition. Nine of the 25 injured were responding firefighters. One firefighter suffered major injuries and underwent surgery. Vincent E. Price, the president of Duke University, confirmed that 10 Duke employees were injured in the explosion.^[11]

Passersby and nearby building occupants rushed to the scene after the explosion, seeking to help the injured, while others helped motorists who were trapped in their cars by inflated airbags. City firefighters arrived to fight the fire that was caused by the explosion. Once the blaze was extinguished, a search-and-rescue effort began; it continued until the evening of the following day.

Following an investigation, officials in the Durham Fire Department released a report^[7] which determined that a three person crew from Optic Cable Technology digging horizontally to install underground cables breached a 3⁄4-inch (2 cm) gas line in front of Kaffeinate on the morning of the explosion. Shop owner Kong Lee went outside to complain about the gas smell – the report includes images from a nearby security camera that shows Lee waving his hand in front of his nose as he talked with the crew – but there was no evidence that Lee or anyone from Optic Cable called 911 to report the gas leak. The report was unable to determine what ignited the estimated 46,000 cubic feet (1,300 m³) of natural gas that leaked out of the ruptured pipe in the roughly 60 minutes from the initial breach to the explosion at 10:06 am.^[12]