Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Over Natural Gas Home Explosion

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the family of a Texas man killed in a natural gas home explosion. 

Renald Ferrovecchio, 43, was killed on January 9, when his house exploded due to a natural gas leak. His death came more than a month after he reported smelling a gas leak to the Texas Gas Service, who investigated and failed to find the leak. The complaint was filed by his parents against Texas Gas Service, Oneok Inc., and H&T Utilities.

The Texas Gas Service has said that its own investigation concluded that the fatal explosion was not caused by the gas leak reported by Ferrovecchio on November 25. Company officials suggest that the gas leak responsible for the home explosion was due to a break in the main line, which they suspect may have been related to an excavation performed in December.

The natural gas explosion lawsuit was filed by Ferrovecchio’s parents, Joseph and Emilia Ferrovecchio, on behalf of his nine-year-old son, Nolan in Travis County probate court.

Other neighbors reported smelling gas coming from Ferrovecchio’s property as early as October. Some of them also maintain that the explosion was preventable had the source of the odor been found by crews who came out to investigate.

The explosion that killed Ferrovecchio damaged other nearby homes as well, knocking one building off its foundation, but there were no other injuries or deaths. His son was in Houston at the time of the blast.