JACKSON, Miss.—Nearly a year after the series of home explosions in South Jackson that took the life of a Jackson woman and led the National Transportation Safety Board to open an investigation, Atmos Energy continues to make upgrades to natural-gas pipes running underground across the city, the company’s Vice President of Public Affairs Bobby Morgan said Tuesday.
Clara Barbour, 82, was killed, and her husband Johnny Barbour was injured earlier this year when their home on Bristol Boulevard exploded in the early morning hours of Jan. 24.
While the NTSB—an independent federal investigative agency—released a preliminary report a month after the initial explosion, investigators typically take 12 to 24 months to conduct a full investigation.
So far, investigators have not assigned responsibility for the explosion to any company or individual.
Atmos Energy sent the following statement in an email to the Mississippi Free Press on Dec. 13:
“As part of our vision to be the safest provider of natural gas service, Atmos Energy is committed to modernizing our natural gas system year-round. During this continual process, residents will see Atmos Energy trucks, equipment, crews, and contractors in the Jackson area as we work to replace infrastructure according to our System Integrity Plan, which was originally approved by the Mississippi Public Service Commission in 2015. As we always strive to do, we will keep working with customers in the area to minimize the inconvenience.
Our work and commitment to the Jackson community is nothing new. Over the past five years, Atmos Energy has invested more than $387 million throughout Mississippi to enhance the safety and reliability of our system, and approximately $155 million, or roughly 40 percent, has been invested in the City of Jackson.
Atmos Energy also supports the Mississippi Public Service Commission’s efforts to enhance Gas Safety Awareness, and we are working collaboratively with the Commission to provide resources and encourage safety practices that protect our customers and communities.
We are committed to the safety of our customers, employees and communities and the safe and reliable operation of our natural gas system. Our employees live and work in this community, and we come to work every day focused on our vision to be the safest provider of natural gas services,” the statement continues. “The work we are doing in Jackson and throughout Mississippi enhances the safety and reliability of the system for our customers and communities.”
As the NTSB continues to examine evidence, no one has yet said definitively whether a gas leak led to the explosion at Barbour’s home or a subsequent home explosion less than a mile away on Shalimar Drive.
However, in the weeks and months following Barbour’s death, Jackson residents asked for transparency from the utility company and demanded answers from the NTSB about who might be held civilly or criminally responsible.
“Our sole mission is to prevent a tragedy from recurring. We investigate with that goal in mind. What happened? How did it happen and how do we prevent it from recurring?” NTSB Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told residents on April 24.
She said that after concluding their investigations, the NTSB does not enforce fines or penalties or suggest criminality. But oftentimes, its findings do lead state and federal agencies to take enforcement action and compel companies to change their safety policies and procedures, she added.
In the weeks following Barbour’s death, Morgan told residents that the company accelerated some of its projects that they had previously deemed “non-serious” and had been scheduled to be completed at a later date, he said on Feb. 7.
“We monitored our system and made the decision to accelerate leak repairs and to accelerate infrastructure replacement programs,” Morgan continued. “This is work that had already been planned.”
During a community meeting at True Believers Missionary Baptist Church in Jackson’s Virden Addition neighborhood on Dec. 11, Morgan—alongside Atmos Energy Vice President of Operations Roy Morris—told residents that the work is ongoing.
“At one point this year, we had a lot of employees here; we had a lot of assets here,” Morgan said, speaking on the flood of technicians the company brought into Jackson in the weeks following the explosions.
While residents do not see the same heightened presence of technicians riding through their neighborhoods today, Morgan told the group, “This work still continues.”
That work includes replacing decades-old cast iron and steel pipes with plastic piping and continuing to refine their public communications strategies, he said.
As Atmos technicians dug gaping pits in residents’ front yards and tested pipes following Barbour’s death, some residents criticized the company for not doing a good enough job of communicating to the public exactly what they were doing and what the dangers were.
Before leaving, Morgan reminded the attendees to call Atmos if they smell gas.
“If you tell them that you smell gas, they’re going to come out. We can make that promise 10 out of 10 times, someone’s going to respond,” he said.
This story was updated with a statement from Atmos Energy.