CHANDLER, AZ — “There's almost like a flash bang that goes over my left shoulder.”
That’s what Dillon Ryan, 32, remembered from the morning of August 26, 2021. He was blown back in his chair inside Platinum Printing in Chandler.
“I remember looking up, and I just see blue sky,” Ryan said.
At that moment, he didn’t know if he was dead or alive, Ryan said during an interview with ABC15 earlier this month. It was Ryan’s first sit-down TV interview since the blast three years ago.
Just after the blast, Ryan saw co-worker Parker Milldebrandt.
“We just start climbing over machines to get out,” Ryan said.
Platinum Printing co-owner Andrew Ryan, Dillon’s brother, also emerged.
Glenn Jordan also escaped from the nearby eyeglass store.
Watch ABC15 coverage of the original explosion incident in the player below.
The force of the natural gas explosion blew off the roof and shattered glass storefronts on part of a strip mall located at Ray and Rural roads in Chandler.
Investigators later determined a cracked Southwest Gas line was to blame. Facing probable non-compliance issues with pipeline safety regulations, the company agreed to pay a record-breaking fine and to make safety improvements this month.
Healing from burn injuries
All four explosion survivors spent weeks in the hospital.
Dillon said he was burned over 25% of his body. His hands, arms, shoulders, upper back, and face were all affected.
“A lot of isolating days where you feel like giving up and giving in,” Ryan said. “You feel like, ‘Would it have been easier to have died?’”
Ryan and his wife had a young son and newborn daughter at home.
In 2023, all the survivors of the Chandler explosion settled lawsuits against Southwest Gas for an undisclosed sum.
Dillon and Andrew Ryan never reopened their print shop.
Driscopipe 8000 investigation
Ryan said Platinum Printing was not even connected to the gas line.
Investigators found a “stub” behind the shopping center. It was an inactive 1-inch plastic pipe made of Driscopipe 8000.
For more than a decade, Southwest Gas has known this type of pipe can become brittle and crack in our desert climate.
“I was not aware of anything,” Ryan said.
ABC15 started reporting on the Driscopipe 8000 danger in 2014 after a similar explosion in a Gilbert man’s garage.
Back then, Southwest Gas agreed to remove or replace Driscopipe 8000 pipes that were inactive service lines and stubs, which were determined to be most susceptible to heat damage.
In 2021, the company said the pipe in the Chandler explosion was not in the remediation plan because it was mislabeled on a map.
As a result, Southwest Gas told state regulars they’d expand their safety program.
“We think that we have a strong track record and focus on safety,” the utility’s then-CEO John Hester told the Arizona Corporation Commission during a September 2021 meeting.
While there haven’t been more explosions, Southwest Gas reported 159 Driscopipe 8000 degradation leaks in Arizona from 1999 to June 2024.
MAP: Where ‘problem’ Driscopipe 8000 gas lines failed in Arizona
The ABC15 investigators found clusters of prior leaks in the Valley and other hot parts of Arizona.
During a trip to the Bullhead City area in Spring 2022, ABC15 discovered Southwest Gas was not just eliminating inactive services and stubs. The company was removing all Driscopipe 8000 in some neighborhoods that had a history of prior leaks.
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In May 2022, Southwest Gas officials confirmed for the first time to ABC15 that some active lines distributing gas to homes and businesses were also deteriorating.
“We are proactively replacing them in the event that they could cause leakage in the future,” said Kevin Lang, Southwest Gas’s Vice President of Engineering.
As of 2022, Lang said no active line had deteriorated to the point of leaking.
The ABC15 Investigators' discovery prompted the Arizona Corporation Commission to require Southwest Gas to submit quarterly updates on their efforts to monitor and replace failing portions of Driscopipe.
Pipeline safety settlement
The Arizona Corporation Commission’s Office of Pipeline Safety concluded that mapping errors occurred both for the pipes in the Chandler explosion and a 2021 leak in Scottsdale. As a result, they were not included in Southwest Gas’s safety plan for more frequent leak patrols and expedited removal.
In a consent agreement this month with the Arizona Corporation Commission, Southwest Gas agreed to pay a $2 million civil penalty. Pipeline safety officials said it was the largest such fine they have issued in Arizona history.
The company also agreed to expand expedited pipe removals. Southwest Gas will now replace or abandon newly discovered Driscopipe 8000 inactive service lines and stubs within 6 months in hotter regions of the state. The remediation can take up to 12 months in the rest of Arizona.
“I was happy to hear that,” Ryan said. “I think the ACC ruling puts this a step in the right direction that we are finding ways to diminish and mitigate issues like this from ever happening again.”
Arizona pipeline safety regulators said the safety measures that Southwest Gas has agreed to go beyond what’s currently required by state and federal rules.
More than 10,000 miles of Driscopipe 8000 pipe are still in operation in Arizona. While Southwest Gas has removed thousands of short sections of inactive line in the last three years, there’s no comprehensive replacement schedule for active lines.
Got a news tip? You can reach Melissa by email at melissa.blasius@abc15.com or call 602-803-2506. Follow her on X @MelissaBlasius or Facebook.