Texas811 records reviewed by The Dallas Morning News indicate the damage was caused by a rig boring for soil ahead of a construction project.
By Devyani Chhetri, Jamie Landers, Sue Ambrose
Texas Metro News
https://texasmetronews.com
Many Atmos Energy workers were on the scene to inspect the leveled The Clyde apartments on East 9th St near Patton Avenue in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, May 30, 2026. The apartment building exploded and burst into flames, Thursday.Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News
Nicked gas line. Crew on site. Gas is leaking.
Sparse but chilling details in an alert sent Thursday show that the firm overseeing a soil analysis at the site of a deadly Oak Cliff apartment explosion earlier this week reported a drilling company damaged a gas line near the building.
Texas811 records reviewed by The Dallas Morning News indicate the damage was caused by a rig boring for soil samples. ECS Limited, a national engineering consulting firm with an office in Carrollton, reported the issue.
Austin-based O-SDA Industries had plans to buy the Oak Cliff property to build low-income housing for seniors. Megan Lasch, the company’s president, said she hired ECS to provide a geotechnical report, in which engineers analyze soil, rock and groundwater conditions before designing foundations.
An ECS Limited spokesperson told The News in an email that none of its employees were on site at the time of the explosion. They declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation. Authorities have connected the explosion to a gas leak but have not provided further details.
The records said the line was damaged with a drill rig by Barba Drilling, and a charred truck at the scene was registered to Barba Drilling Co. Manuel Barba, listed in records as the company’s manager, did not respond to phone calls, text messages or voicemails seeking comment.
Officials said three people were killed and at least five others were injured in Thursday’s blast at The Clyde apartments in the 400 block of East 9th Street, near Patton Avenue. The tragedy is the worst gas explosion in the city since 2018, when a leak and subsequent explosion in northwest Dallas claimed the life of a 12-year-old girl.
“This is absolutely catastrophic,” said Geoff Henley, a Dallas attorney representing the current property owner, who was not involved in the digging work. “A variety of things had to go wrong for this to happen.”
A week before the explosion, an employee from ECS Limited’s Carrollton office submitted a request to mark utilities to Texas811, the agency that coordinates the location of underground lines before drilling. The drilling was to take place after 10 a.m. May 26, last one day, and was described as “Bore-Auger-Soil Sample.” The equipment to be used was described as a “Drill Rig.”
Four boring sites close to the apartments were described; none were inside buildings.
Once a ticket is put in, Texas811 dispatches contractors in and around the drilling site, highlighting where gas, water and sewer lines are located, typically with flags or spray paint. Drilling is supposed to begin only after utility lines are marked.
An ECS spokesperson said the utility lines were marked prior to the work. It’s unclear from the records when the drilling took place.
A Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman said the department was first alerted to a gas leak at The Clyde at 12:47 p.m. Thursday. Crews arrived roughly two minutes later, expecting to help residents evacuate, when the explosion sent the complex up in flames.
Location of gas line damage
ECS Limited filed a digging report with the Texas811 system on May 21 to drill four holes at specific coordinates near Patton Avenue and 9th Street. On May 28, the company filed another report that a Barba Drilling rig had damaged a gas line at the site.
Estefania Herrera, who lives at a neighboring apartment property, said she heard a worker mention a pipeline minutes before the boom.
Herrera had just returned from work and was walking across the street to pick up her children from a friend’s apartment when she noticed a worker pacing, wiping sweat from his face and trying to call someone.
“The pipeline, the gas pipeline,” she heard the man say.
According to Texas811, an excavator must immediately call 911 when a gas line has been damaged or hit. It’s unclear who first called 911 to report the leak in Oak Cliff. The News has requested emergency call records from the city. ECS would not say whether their employees called 911.
When an excavator hits a line, they also must notify Texas811.
The day of the explosion, records show, ECS called Texas811 describing the nicked gas line at one of the four boring sites. GPS coordinates on the request show the site is in front of the apartment building.
The records reviewed by The News list a bare-bones account of the situation: “Nicked Gas Line, Crew on site, Customer service unknown, Gas is leaking, Previous markings are visible.”
The time listed on the records reporting the leak was 12:57 p.m., roughly eight minutes after the explosion took place. It’s unclear when the report was called in.
Jason Brown, who works nearby at 8th Street and Beckley Avenue, said he felt his building shake when the apartment exploded.
“There must have been other events that happened,” said Brown, gauging the magnitude of the blast and the pressure that must have built. “It seems like a chain reaction.”
Brown, who is a developer but not involved in work at the site, said geotech reports are common practice before developing properties. Engineers and analysts who do this type of work are typically conducting either an environmental assessment to look for possible contamination or they’re testing the soil makeup to help engineers determine how they’re going to build a foundation, among other things, he said.
Brown said developers know to call Texas811 before digging, whether it’s for gas lines or sprinklers. Chris Stovall, president and CEO of Texas811, said state law requires the nonprofit to be contacted two business days “before any project begins, no matter what the size.”
At the time of the explosion, the property was two months away from a planned change in ownership, pending state approval. O-SDA Industries had applied for state-allocated tax credits to buy and reconstruct The Clyde, along with a nearby apartment called The Bonnie, into 82 apartments for low-income seniors.
Lasch said she doesn’t know what effect the explosion will have on the project.
Multiple investigative agencies remain on site to piece together exactly what happened. Residents, many of whom are now homeless, don’t know what’s in store.
According to the latest Texas811 tickets, gas line repairs could take up to 30 days.
Staff Writers Sarah Bahari and Chase Rogers and researchers Rachel Friend and Sarah Haldeman contributed to this report.
