Around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 46-year-old Jason Lee Beach of Wilmington drove into a gas line on New Centre Drive, causing a gas leak, and then fled, according to the Wilmington Police Department. Beach, who police believed to be under the influence of nitrous oxide, was later taken into custody and his initial $100,000 bond subsequently raised to $1 million; as of Thursday afternoon, he remains in the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office detention center.
The fire department responded to the gas leak, but about 20 minutes later, it turned into a life-threatening explosion. The building was the future site of the Eastern Carolina Veterinary Medical Center, which was slated to open next month. Since the incident, videos of the explosion have circulated on social media and the story has made national headlines.
WFD Fire Chief Steve Mason, WFD Fire Marshal Assistant Chief Chris Walker, and their Chief of Operations - Assistant Chief Derek Mickler, gathered with Lieutenant Greg Willett from the Wilmington Police Department to debrief the public on what happened.
It took the WFD crew until about 7 p.m. Tuesday night to completely put out the fire. Chief Mason said it took longer because natural gas kept flooding in from the pipeline for nearly two hours after the explosion — exacerbating the flames.
Mason said as a result of the vehicle collision, a regulatory mechanism that pressurized the natural gas being pumped into the building was damaged. That meant gas was filling up the building at about 60 psi.
“So unbeknownst to our guys at the time, that building was filling up with gas very quickly and eventually, after the explosion occurred, that high-pressure gas line was also fueling the fire," Mason said.
Assistant Chief Mickler added that three large oxygen tanks located inside the facility were damaged as well. The tanks were within proximity to the gas leak — causing around 360 gallons of oxygen to seep into the fiery air.
WFD said even though the veterinary hospital wasn’t operational yet, the building was up to code for the most part.
Assistant Chief Walker said the gas line itself was “in compliance as far as their distance from the roadway.” But an HVAC system inside the building or “something as simple as a light switch” could have ignited the flames.
“In fact, the fire marshal's office had given them a certificate of occupancy; I think they were scheduled to open in the first week of September. [The explosion] was certainly a result of the accident,” Mason said.
WFD worked with Piedmont Natural Gas to eventually get the line shut off, making the fire more manageable.
Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
The fire chiefs provided an update on the three crew members who initially were sent to the hospital after the explosion.
Those three were the first crew members to arrive on the scene to examine the gas leak, with gas masks on and atmospheric monitoring equipment in tow.
The crew located a small construction team on site and was able to get them evacuated.
By the time the firefighters reached the second floor, their meters started going off — and that’s when things changed rapidly.
“The worst words that you can hear come across the radio are Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,” Mason said. “I heard the panic in the voices.”
Within seconds, the crew members had to self-evacuate by bailing out of the second-floor windows, causing shoulder and knee injuries, according to WFD.
“Of course, the most serious injury, one of our firefighters received burns on both of his hands… third-degree burns,” Mason said.
As of Wednesday, that crew member has been treated at UNC Chapel Hill’s Burn Clinic.
“And all things being considered, he was in good spirits,” Mickler said. “His wife was there, his brother was there, his parents were up there as well, too. So we have a lot of folks involved, and those that also were released last night, we've been staying in constant contact with them.”
The police department’s bomb squad assessed the building once the fire was out, and they recommended that all WFD personnel who were exposed to the explosion get examined for concussion injuries, landing more crew members in the hospital — bringing the total crew members with non-life-threatening injuries to five.
Mason said that according to the three firefighters he visited in the hospital, there were two explosions.
However, the department would have to confirm whether that was the case, with a post-incident analysis.
WFD said in the coming weeks, they’ll be working with the North Carolina Public Safety Division’s stress debriefing team as they welcome those crew members back to work. They’ll also be providing peer support and they’ll be partnering with Paws4People to provide support dogs to assist those crew members on their shift.
“There is no doubt in my mind that we could have lost some members yesterday,” Mason said. “So the fact that we only had four or five people injured yesterday, somebody was looking after us.”
Questions of regulations and changes to protocol
At this point, Mason said he doesn’t think there needs to be any changes made to their response protocol. He said gas leaks are very common for the fire department to respond to, and they run weekly gas leak drills to ensure their firefighters are prepared for this type of situation.
Mason added that once they conduct a post-incident analysis — meaning they’ll collect and review all 911 calls to assess their response time, and go over a minute-by-minute rundown of everything that happened — they’ll have a better idea of what risks to consider when responding to events like this.
But overall, Mason said his crew, the agencies that collaborated with them, and even the community handled the situation above and beyond expectations.
Beach
As for the suspected driver, Jason Lee Beach, was arrested on Tuesday and faces multiple charges, and he had his first appearance on Wednesday.
Beach is currently being held at the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office Detention Center, initially under a $100,000 secured bond, but after a judge determined Beach could be a flight risk, his bond increased to $1 million.
For an update on Beach’s charges, read our initial coverage.