The owners of The Clyde apartment complex in Oak Cliff have filed a lawsuit against Atmos Energy Corp. following the catastrophic May 28 gas explosion that killed three people and leveled the two-story building near Patton Avenue and East Ninth Street in Dallas.
,The deadly blast at the Oak Cliff apartment complex killed three people and injured several others., ,The two-story 22-unit building had 19 occupied units at the time of the explosion.,
The new lawsuit filed by the complex’s owners centers on allegations of negligence by the natural gas utility. The suit claims Atmos failed to properly mark its underground gas pipeline before a drilling company began work at the site. According to the filing, that failure to accurately identify the location of the line underground directly led the drilling crew to strike it, triggering the deadly explosion.
The lawsuit further alleges that Atmos had prior knowledge of serious vulnerabilities in its pipeline infrastructure. ,A key element of the lawsuit centers on AI technology, claiming Atmos relied on an artificial intelligence-based line-locating service called KorTerra to generate mapping data, but that the system was only as reliable as the information Atmos fed into it and that the company did not know where its own lines were located.,
The filing also accuses Atmos of failing to act once an active gas leak was reported on the day of the explosion. ,The explosion happened as Dallas Fire-Rescue crews were responding to a reported gas leak at the complex., The property owners contend that Atmos was informed of the planned drilling in advance and should have shut off the gas supply before the situation turned fatal.
,A separate wrongful death lawsuit was brought by attorney Ted Lyon on behalf of the family of Marisol Perez and her 18-month-old son Erick who both died in the explosion along with their surviving 10-year-old daughter who escaped the wreckage., ,A third victim longtime Dallas County Democratic Party precinct chair Sylvia Collins was also killed in the blast.,
,The lawsuits accuse Atmos along with a construction company and the apartment property’s management of negligence and gross negligence in connection with the blast.,
Atmos Energy responded by pointing to ongoing investigations. The company confirmed it hired a contractor to locate and mark the gas lines prior to the drilling. Preliminary findings from the National Transportation Safety Board released July 1 indicate that while some gas lines in the area had been marked ,Atmos Energy’s service line to the Clyde Apartments was struck on May 28 by Barba Drilling a third-party drilling company unrelated to Atmos Energy.,
,A Dallas County judge approved a temporary restraining order to preserve the site as the case continues., ,The lawsuit also accuses Atmos of mismarking multiple other gas lines in the area and Atmos has not addressed the allegations related to their AI system directly.,
,The lawsuits seek compensation for past and future pain and suffering impairment disfigurement mental anguish medical expenses and medical monitoring., Investigations by the NTSB and the Railroad Commission of Texas remain active as authorities work to determine the full cause of the deadly explosion.