Residents want answers after fatal gas explosion
Angry residents overflowed the Heather Gardens clubhouse in Aurora Tuesday to demand answers about a gas-leak explosion Friday night that killed an 82-year-old resident and leveled multiple homes.
They left even more angry after receiving precious little information from Aurora Fire Rescue and their own community leaders.
“People were in shock this weekend,” said Linda Champ, who lives just a few yards from the explosion site and attended Tuesday’s meeting. “But people are pissed now.”
Media was not allowed into the closed-door HOA meeting, but multiple residents said they were informed there had been a third gas leak in Heather Gardens last week. The third incident, on Nov. 13, has not been reported, and it has not been confirmed by fire officials or Xcel Energy. But residents told The Denver Post that Xcel Energy and the fire department responded. No one was evacuated.
Gas leaks on Wednesday and Friday previously have been reported.
The leak on Friday resulted in a massive explosion that sent two people to the hospital, including a firefighter, and killed 82-yearold Carol Ross.
Workers drilling underground pathways — possibly for fiber-optic cables — struck buried natural-gas lines twice in three days at the senior living community.
Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz has confirmed that those leaks were the results of third-party contractors. He declined to confirm or deny the third leak that reportedly occurred on Tuesday.
The company is compiling a list of instances in which the company has responded to Heather Gardens since Aug. 1, Stutz said. That list will be released in the next day or two, he said. Stutz could not confirm or deny the Nov. 13 incident.
Aurora Fire Rescue could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. Just a few hours after the Heather Gardens HOA meeting, the fire department responded to a gas leak in Aurora’s Murphy Creek neighborhood. A shelter in place notice was issued to some nearby residents.
Leslie Oliver, a spokeswoman for Comcast Colorado, confirmed Monday that its contractor ICS Communications has been working on the company’s Xfinity fiber-optic project at Heather Gardens. But she did not acknowledge whether that work was connected to the gas leaks.
Residents peppered Aurora fire officials and Heather Gardens’ leadership in the meeting, several residents interviewed afterward said. Why weren’t they told to evacuate? Why didn’t Heather Gardens alert the whole community of the Wednesday gas leak? Why didn’t they do more?
“There was a lot of passing the buck,” resident Edith Holden said. “There were not a lot of answers.”
One of the main gripes in the meeting was a lack of communication from the housing association, Holden said. Some residents on Wednesday received an email from Heather Gardens, alerting them of a “major gas leak” between two buildings. But several residents, including those near the leak, said they didn’t receive a message.
“They don’t have a means of communication to keep us safe,” Holden said. “This is an elderly community. We don’t all have email!”