McKINNEY – Even before a series of explosions rocked a McKinney neighborhood Friday, Earl Avery could sense the danger.

SONYA N. HEBERT/DMN

Officers restrained a man from running to find relatives at the scene of a gas line rupture Friday in McKinney.

The odor of gas was unmistakable, he said. Half an hour later, the houses started exploding one by one.

"You could feel the ground shaking and feel the compression in the air," Mr. Avery said.

A gas line rupture destroyed two houses in the 600 block of Fenet Street about 5:50 p.m., McKinney police Capt. Randy Roland said. A third home was heavily damaged in the explosion, officials said.

The destruction sent three people to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.

The first home to explode was a duplex on the western end of Fenet. The second – which turned into a pile of rubble – and third house were closer to the leak.

McKinney Fire Chief Mark Wallace said the homes were engulfed in flames when crews arrived.

Firefighters began working to remove those injured and then took a defensive stance against the blazes. Chief Wallace said the three people were seriously injured in the explosions.

The fire chief said gas company contractors, who were not among those injured, were boring underground along Throckmorton Street just north of Fenet when they struck a gas line. Gas apparently went into the homes and then ignited, he said.

"The gas follows the path of least resistance," the chief said.

An official with Atmos Energy said a gas contractor was responsible for the incident.

"The theory at this point is the gas got into the sewer, and from the sewer it went into the homes," said Rand LaVonn, a company spokesman. "The gas is now turned off ... and we're working as quickly as possible to get it out of the sewer so people can return to their homes."

Isabel Flores and his 16-year-old son, Johnathan, had stepped outside their east McKinney house about 6 p.m. Friday when the ground shook and an explosion rang out.

Seconds later, there was a second roaring explosion.

Mr. Flores and his son looked down Throckmorton Street toward Nancy Foster's house and saw flames. So they ran in that direction and were later joined by Robert Wiggins.

"The house was on fire, so I hollered for Miss Nancy. I called two or three times, then ran around back," said Mr. Flores, 57.

"I seen her and a man," who neighbors said had been doing her hair, Mr. Flores said.

Mr. Wiggins said he arrived just as Ms. Foster and her friend were being helped out of the remains of her house.

"I didn't even recognize her," said Mr. Wiggins, 53. "I've known her my whole life, and I couldn't tell that was Miss Nancy."

She didn't have any hair. And she was walking with her arms and legs away from her body as if every touch hurt her, Johnathan said.

A man was walking around, his left arm so badly burned that the skin was gone, the men said.

After they walked Ms. Foster to an ambulance about 200 feet down the street, two more quick explosions occurred.

Two of the three injured had second- and third-degree burns over 50 percent of their bodies, Chief Wallace said. The third person had second- and third-degree burns over 30 percent of his body.

Their conditions at Parkland were not immediately known.

Mr. Flores said that right before the explosions, gas contractors had been boring into the street with a big machine. He said one of the workers came up to him and asked him to call 911 because they had hit a gas line.

"He said he had called Atmos 30 minutes earlier, but they had not come. So he asked me to call 911," Mr. Flores said.

By contrast, Chief Wallace said the construction workers told him that about six minutes passed between the time they noticed the gas leak and the time of the first explosion.

As firefighters doused a burning home on Fenet near Throckmorton, they also sprayed the area near the boring machine to help dissipate the natural gas. Chief Wallace said that was done in an effort to keep the gas from igniting from the burning home.

Chief Wallace said 25 homes were evacuated. It's not clear how many people live in each house. The destroyed homes are across the street from the Holy Family School.

Late Friday night, authorities were planning to house the evacuated families at First Baptist Church of McKinney, 1614 W. Louisiana St.

Three Collin County Area Regional Transit buses were lined up on the south side of the barricades at 8:50 p.m., preparing to drive people to a shelter.

"We want to get these people back into their homes as soon as possible," Chief Wallace said. "But we want to make sure it's safe first."

Staff writers Jim Getz and Holly Yan contributed to this report.

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