Months after gas leak caused explosion in Willowbrook condo building, residents are still displaced

May 18--The Speedway gas station in Westmont where leaking fuel storage tanks caused explosions or flashes in area homes and sewers last year has reopened for business, but some residents of The Knolls condominiums are still waiting to return home.

Repairs are not yet complete on the 6167 Knoll Wood Road building, where gas fumes apparently ignited by a dryer in the laundry room caused an explosion that injured an older woman and damaged the building.

Residents of the 12 condominiums in the two-story building have been living in an apartment complex just to the north of the Knolls, said Alice Jara, property manager for the Knolls Homeowners Association.

Speedway is paying the rent for the residents, said Lesley Simeral, president of the association.

Repairing the building could not start until the investigation into the cause of the Oct. 20 explosion was finished, Jara and Simeral said. Not only the state fire marshal investigated the accident, but the Knolls Homeowners Association and Speedway had their own investigators, too.

It had to go through the insurance process, which was not a quick process, they said, even though Simeral said structural damage was relatively minor.

"It was only about three weeks ago that we received clearance to start the repairs," she said.

Simeral expects the condominiums will be ready for the residents to return home in 10 to 12 weeks.

She also said she has seen the injured resident, Margaret Rice, who is about 80 years old and suffered burns, several times since the accident, and that she is doing well.

The woman's daughter, Laura Rice, said the family is not free to comment about the incident.

Renovations also are underway at a Willowbrook house on Tennessee Avenue and 63rd Street where a fire started Oct. 20, apparently related to fumes from the gas in the sewers.

The homeowners, who are not living in the house, could not be reached for comment.

Gas fumes also caused an explosion in the basement of the Enochs' house on the 6200 block of South Bentley Avenue, but they feel they were very fortunate no one was injured.

Arlene Enochs was washing clothes in the basement at about 10:30 a.m. Oct. 20.

"I was sitting at the kitchen table working a crossword puzzle, thinking it was about time to go down and put the clothes in the dryer," Enochs said.

All of a sudden, she heard a loud noise.

"It shook the house," Enochs said. She first looked out the window, but didn't see anything, so she went downstairs.

"When I opened the door to the laundry room, it was filled with smoke and very hot," she said. "The odor was horrible."

The couple were not allowed to stay in their house for at least three nights, they said.

During the days after the explosion, the firefighters returned numerous times to take readings and check that everything was safe, Enochs said.

Officials from Speedway, too, were very nice, the couple said. Speedway offered to have them stay at a nearby hotel, but the Enochs chose to stay with their grown daughter instead.

"There were burn marks on the side of the dryer," Enochs said. They were told not to use the gas dryer anymore.

Kimberly Fornek/Pioneer Press

The Speedway gas station in Westmont, where fuel leaking from underground storage tanks caused an explosion in Willowbrook, reopened in April.

The Speedway gas station in Westmont, where fuel leaking from underground storage tanks caused an explosion in Willowbrook, reopened in April. (Kimberly Fornek/Pioneer Press)

The Enochs filed a claim with Speedway and were reimbursed for a new dryer and a washer, too.

"It was a pain, while it was going on," said Arlene's husband, Phil. But it all worked out OK, they said.

Arlene Enochs said the firefighters told her if she had gone downstairs and started the dryer, the explosion would have been much bigger.

She realizes she could have been seriously injured.

"We go to church and say thank you," Arlene Enochs said. "It could have been much worse."

The Speedway gas station, at 6241 S. Cass Ave., reopened April 17 with a remodeled store and new underground fuel tanks.

Fred Schneller, manager of the petroleum and chemical safety division of the Illinois State Fire Marshal Office, said all infrastructure related to the dispensing and storing of fuel at the Speedway has been removed and replaced, including all the tanks, pipes and dispensers. Contaminated soil also was removed from the property.

Sanitary and stormwater sewers and pipes also have been replaced.

The Flagg Creek Water Reclamation District determined there was a 385-foot section of the sanitary sewer where fuel from the leaking underground storage tanks could have infiltrated the sewer line. Within days of the explosion, workers started putting in about 200 feet of new sewer pipe behind the Speedway and installed a liner in the remainder of the section.

The Speedway is about a mile west of the Knolls, where on Oct. 19, residents there and in the Stanhope Court residences next door on Clarendon Hills Road, north of 63rd Street, began reporting an unusual odor.

Firefighters responded, investigated the odor, which smelled like gasoline, but could not find the cause.

At about 9:15 a.m. the next day, Oct. 20, there was an explosion in the first-floor laundry room of the Knolls building. Glass windows and items were blown out of the condominiums next to the laundry room, and a resident was taken to the hospital.

Numerous buildings were evacuated, while firefighters and emergency personnel investigated the cause of the explosion. The smell of gasoline was reported as far away as the Flagg Creek Water Reclamation plant at Interstates 55 and 294.

In early November, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency requested the Illinois Attorney General file a lawsuit against Speedway LLC and asked the court to require Speedway remain closed while it performed air monitoring at any affected homes in and around the sanitary sewer system, and investigated and removed any contamination from the gasoline leaks.

The lawsuit stated, in addition to the Knolls condominiums, approximately six other homes were evacuated and pressure from gasoline vapors in the sanitary sewer system caused 14 manhole covers along the sewer line to be blown off.

Annie Thompson, press secretary for the Illinois Attorney's General Office, said the office is making sure Speedway complies with the court order.

The lawsuit is scheduled for a status hearing July 12 in the DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton, she said.

Any fines for the leaking tanks will be imposed as part of the lawsuit, an Illinois EPA spokeswoman said.

Chuck Rice, director of public and government affairs for Marathon Petroleum Corp., Speedway's parent company, said the company would not discuss pending or active litigation, nor would he say how much the company has spent on renovations, repairs and settling claims.

kfornek@pioneerlocal.com

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