SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — Thursday marks one year since a South Jordan family's lives were changed forever, after their home exploded because of a natural gas leak. 15-year-old Logan Hansen was in the house and died in that blast. His family is still trying their best to move forward.
"I live pretty close to here, so I heard it,” said Jordan Hansen. “I thought it was something else and when I realized it was coming from here, I ran over here. It’s something you don’t expect and it took my mind a minute to process this was my family's home.”
Jordan is Logan’s older brother. His mom, dad, and two younger sisters lived with Logan in that house. Now, all that’s left in that empty lot is dirt, and reminders shaped like blue ribbons that friends, family and neighbors had tied for Logan.
"Finding out my brother was inside, that was just, you feel so helpless, you don’t know what to do,” said Jordan. First responders found his body 6 hours after the explosion. He was the only one inside the house.
"My family lost everything that day,” said Logan. “Not only lost my brother, but they lost everything that they’ve ever built in their life."
From vigils to posters to donations, the community stepped up to help the Hansen family.
"Logan was a pretty good kid, he loved his family, and his friends. He loved spending time with everybody,” added Jordan.
Investigators determined the home exploded on November 6, 2024, because of a natural gas leak. "An incident like this is so unexpected and tragic that nobody can, nobody would expect something like this to happen, especially to their family,” he said.
Recently released reports and documents from the National Transportation Safety Board showed that the leak happened because of a crack in the Aldyl-A pipeline installed in the 1970's. They also believe that spot with the cracked pipe was about 250 feet from the home, but don’t know when the pipe cracked and how long it had been leaking for.
"You’re dealing with a very volatile substance, and people don’t realize the severity of the outcome of what natural gas can actually do,” said Heath Givan, with Utah Leak Detection. He is a certified plumber who specializes in leaks, including gas leaks and their repairs. He is not involved with this case.
In the report, investigators noted that the family in the home had felt dizzy, had headaches, and flu-like symptoms prior to the blast. They also didn't have hot water for a few days but had not smelled any gas.
Even after the explosion, first responders on scene could not smell it, even with readings showing high concentrations of the gas.
Givan said that is not unusual because sometimes the soil can absorb the odorant added to gas to give it a smell.
"That has happened before,” added Givan. “I've been in a home before where they can’t smell it, I’ve had to use my gas sniffing device to actually detect it, and I couldn’t even smell it when I was in their house."
Jordan said his family is trying to raise awareness about installing gas detection devices, to help make sure this doesn’t happen again. "We want people to start buying these gas detectors to put in their homes,” he said.
“With an incident like this where a gas leak is undetectable by scent, or anything when it travels so far, through the soil, you don’t know until it happens, and that’s exactly what happened. We had no idea until you come home and there’s just nothing."
He said they are trying their best to keep moving forward. "It won’t ever be normal again. Especially without him, it will never be the same,” said Jordan.
