Washington Gas hopes to restore service for Beltsville residents within 48 hours

PRINCE GEORGE'S CO., Md. - Work is underway to reconnect hundreds of homes and businesses in Prince George's County that are still without heat and hot water four days later.

As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, Washington Gas said they had reconnected 55% of affected customers, prioritizing critical sites like High Point High School, Riderwood Senior Living community, medical facilities and large apartment complexes.

This is all a result of a gas line explosion around 10:15 p.m. Friday in Beltsville that seriously injured a worker. Third-party excavation work damaged a service line and when crews arrived to repair it, gas was ignited somehow and caused an explosion, sending flames into the night sky for hours.

"If it wasn't for the old space heaters that we have, we'd still be freezing and we gotta boil water, everybody in the neighborhood is taking bird baths," said Alex Pineda, who didn't have gas at his apartment complex as of Tuesday afternoon.

Fox 5 saw Washington Gas crews going door to door at homes, businesses and apartment complexes to relight appliances like furnaces, water heaters and stoves.

But one of the issues they are running into is trying to get into each individual unit to access gas lines and pilots.

"A lot of residents aren't opening the door because they're afraid of the whole ICE situation, so we need to inform the Spanish community, if you see the maintenance guy with the gas company guy, open the door because all they want to do is shut off your main gas line," Pineda said.

"This is the type of consequence you get when you instill fear in the population and that's not making anybody safer," Councilmember Tom Dernoga said.

Michelle Garcia with Councilmember Tom Dernoga's office, who represents the area, said residents can reach out to them directly for assistance. You can call 301-952-3887 or email councildistirct1@co.pg.md.us.

"Thank you for sharing our information to residents because we did get a number of calls after your story yesterday and we were able to help a number of families prioritized," Garcia explained. "Some families with disabilities, one with a resident over 90 years old.

Washington Gas says they hope to have everyone back up and running within the next 24 to 48 hours — and again, need everyone to cooperate and let them in.

Per Washington Gas, the damaged service line was repaired, all safety checks were performed, and gas was safely reintroduced into the system.