Jan. 18--A woman critically injured in the explosion and fire last month that destroyed the house she was living in with her boyfriend and 2-year-old daughter has filed suit against Kansas Gas Service's parent company.
The suit against Oneok Inc. alleges "ultrahazardous and abnormally dangerous activities" and negligence and seeks more than $75,000 in damages.
Mikayla Frierson, 21, Willbert Reed Jr., 28, and Kymani Reed, 2, were all critically injured in the explosion and fire early on the morning of Dec. 21 at 728 N. Minnesota. Willbert and Kymani Reed have since been released from the hospital, and Frierson is in good condition at Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis.
The suit was filed in Sedgwick County District Court late last week on Frierson's behalf by her mother, Shunda Vinson. The suit states Frierson suffered "profound personal injuries." The three family members were found outside the burning house in the front yard by firefighters arriving on the scene.
Fire investigators have said the house was not hooked up to any utilities, but gas somehow accumulated inside the dwelling and was ignited by a space heater. The family used space heaters for warmth, running an extension cord from the house next door.
Kansas Gas Service crews detected a leak in a main gas line that runs parallel to the house along Minnesota Avenue.
"We don't know where the fuel gas came from, but we've eliminated A, B and C," fire Capt. Stuart Bevis said. "Nobody's been able to locate any other source" besides the leaking gas line.
Investigators are awaiting the results of soil sample tests to rule out other potential sources for the gas ignited in the explosion and fire.
Attorney Andrew Hutton said his law firm had experts look at the gas line "and it was broke."
"The tragedy is there were many complaints before this happened, and there did not seem to be any corrective action," Hutton said.
About 200 calls about gas odors around the city were called in to 911 in the five days leading up to the explosion and fire, Bevis said, but there's nothing to indicate they were related to the source of the blast.
Hutton said he doesn't agree with that.
"There seems to be a consistency in that area" near Murdock and I-135, he said. "When people smell (natural) gas, as compared to gas from a sewer or from a landfill, that's a different smell. Natural gas has a very distinctive odor" because the smell has been added to the odorless gas.
Hutton said there's evidence of the gas building up prior to the explosion and fire. A relative of Frierson's who called the family in the days before the fire said they seemed "loopy" and talked of feeling nauseated.
"They weren't responding very well, indicating that gas was accumulating," Hutton said.
Attorneys are trying to find out when the gas lines in that neighborhood were last inspected by Kansas Gas Service, Hutton said.
"We don't know if this area had been checked for a while," he said. "There are a lot of cast-iron pipes left in Wichita. These cast-iron pipes just break."
Contact Stan Finger at 316-268-6437.
Copyright 2012 - The Wichita Eagle, Kan.
