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A house explosion in a Centreville neighborhood Sunday night is raising new questions about the safety of natural gas pipelines running beneath local communities
CENTERVILLE, Va. — A house explosion in a Centreville neighborhood Sunday night is raising new questions about the safety of natural gas pipelines running beneath communities across the region — and a WUSA9 investigation into federal data reveals just how common and costly pipeline failures are.
Three natural gas transmission lines — operated by Williams Pipeline Corporation and Washington Gas — run through the neighborhood near the blast on Quail Pond Court. Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief of Operations Eric Craven said investigators have confirmed natural gas is seeping up through the ground from a suspected leak in one of those lines.
“They’re doing test holes to ensure that the propagation of that natural gas does not seep and expand into a further perimeter, as well as trying to pinpoint the exact leak on the exact line in the vicinity,” Craven said.
Two people suffered minor injuries — one occupant of the home who escaped and injured his leg, and a neighbor. At least 51 homes were evacuated after firefighters detected dangerous levels of natural gas in the area. Craven said there were 20 pending 911 calls reporting explosions or gas odors at the time the house blew up, and a gas company was already on scene investigating an earlier odor complaint when the explosion occurred.
A pattern across the region
The Centreville blast is the latest in a series of gas-related explosions in the D.C. region. In February 2024, a leaking propane tank caused a home to explode in Sterling, killing volunteer firefighter Trevor Brown and injuring 13 others. In January 2024, a gas explosion leveled a convenience store in Southeast D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood, narrowly missing 16 children at a nearby daycare who were evacuated just minutes before the blast. And in September 2024, a gas explosion in a Columbia Heights apartment building injured one woman and displaced more than 100 residents.
What the federal data shows
Data from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration shows that from 2023 to 2025, there were 1,847 pipeline incidents nationwide, resulting in more than $872 million in property damage. Forty-one people were killed.
The federal government defines a pipeline incident as an event where a gas leak results in a death or hospitalization, causes at least $122,000 in property damage, or releases a large volume of gas. Not every incident involves an explosion — but every one represents a serious failure in the system.
Over that same three-year period, there were 24 pipeline incidents in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Sixty-three percent of those incidents were in Virginia.
Of all the causes tracked in the data, corrosion was the costliest — a sign of aging pipeline infrastructure not just in Virginia, but across the country.
The Virginia State Corporation Commission is on scene in Fairfax County as part of the investigation. WUSA9 has reached out to ask why Virginia accounts for such a large share of pipeline incidents in the region and is awaiting a response.
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