DALLAS - Just days before a deadly explosion on Espanola Drive, and a mile and a half away, a homeowner saw gas bubbling up from his alley.
Jed Allsup went live on Facebook three times to show issues with a gas leak on Wednesday, Feb. 21, two days before the deadly explosion in the 3500 block of Espanola Drive.
In the first video, you could see bubbles coming up from cracks in the cement in the alley behind his house.
In Allsup said, when he called Atmos, a worker came out, but didn't appear too concerned. Allsup said he was told a crew would be back in five days to repair the leak.
"It just didn't seem there was any sense of urgency. It seemed to me there was a lot of gas bubbling up out of the ground," said Allsup. "That's something I would address immediately."
After the worker left, Allsup went live on Facebook a second time, lighting the bubbles on fire to show they were natural gas.
A few hours later, Allsup said, another Atmos crew came to his door, and this time, they repaired the gas line behind his house immediately. Allsup went live again on Facebook to show it.
When he heard that a home exploded a mile and a half away two days later, killing a 12-year-old girl and injuring four others, Allsup realized how dangerous the leak behind his home could have been.
"Scary. Heartbreaking. It could have been us. It could have been my neighbors. It could have leaked over there and blown them up," said Allsup.
According to Allsup, he and his neighbors have been calling for years about the occasional smell of natural gas in the area.
He had all the old piping running from the meter to his home redone with a new, modern system, but says Atmos crews didn't address the aging pipes in the alley behind his home until last week.