Federal investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are expected to give an update Wednesday afternoon on the Centreville, Virginia, house explosion and ongoing natural gas leak that forced dozens of families out of their homes.
The NTSB is currently holding a news conference down the street from where the house exploded Sunday night on Quail Pond Court. A livestream of the news conference is available in the video player above.
More than 100 people showed up to a town hall meeting officials held Tuesday night to update residents on the search for the source of the gas leak.
Natural gas levels have been decreasing both inside and outside the houses closest to the explosion, officials said. They said that’s because two pipelines in the area have either been cut off or shut off.
Billy Meyers said he was grateful to learn during the town hall meeting that his family was among eight to 10 families who could go back into their homes on Tuesday night. They were forced to leave their house after Sunday night’s explosion.
“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.”
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.
“This is obviously a very scary thing for this community,” said Jeff McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. “And we’re just right now focused on getting, as quickly as we can, the two gas providers to discover why this happened.”
At the meeting, a new evacuation map was released showing about 30 homes depicted in red with the notation “evacuation.”
Officials said there are three pipelines, 30, 40 and 42 inches in diameter, are buried under the grass-covered right-of-way that has a street bisecting it.
The cause of the explosion still has not been determined.
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