Devastating Downtown Explosion: 21 Injured in Fort Worth
Twenty-one people were seriously injured after the historic downtown Sandman Hotel exploded in Fort Worth on Monday afternoon, just after 3:30 PM.
The blast blew out windows and scattered debris across the street. Although the cause of the explosion is still unknown in the wake of this catastrophe, the descriptions from eyewitnesses are consistent with a natural gas explosion. If this explosion is, in fact, the result of a natural gas leak or defect in a natural gas system, this event would mark yet another preventable disaster. Natural gas explosions, sadly, have become an all-too-common part of everyday life across this nation.
The Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky team of catastrophic explosion and industrial site-safety attorneys have handled far too many fatal natural gas explosion cases. Its clients include families of the victims of the 2022 Pottstown residential gas explosion and the lethal 2019 blast that leveled five row houses in Philadelphia. The firm has also represented several victims of industrial plant explosions, steel mill explosions, nursing home fires, and obtained a $70 million settlement resulting from a Philadelphia food truck explosion. Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky has also obtained a $1.2 billion settlement in the Miami Condominium collapse and a $227 million recovery in the Salvation Army building collapse.
Unfortunately, these explosions tend to occur while people are in their hotel rooms or in their own homes at their most vulnerable state. All too often, these explosions are the result of defectively designed or manufactured natural gas systems and equipment or negligence on the part of those tasked with ensuring that these ultrahazardous materials are transported and delivered in a safe manner.
The most critical thing to do at this point is to secure the site and ensure that there is not additional threat to human life before doing a forensic analysis to determine what went wrong and how to prevent such devastation in the future. Our attorneys are standing by and available to comment as this tragic situation develops.