Qualla: 2019 Durham Gas Explosion

2019 Durham Gas Explosion: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. Kaffeinate stood at 115 North Duke Street in the Brightleaf District of downtown Durham, North Carolina - a small coffee shop run by Kong Lee and his family, named for the caffeine that gives coffee its lift. At 9:38 a.m. on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, someone called 911 to report the smell of natural gas near the storefront. Firefighters were on the scene within minutes. Kong Lee had already walked outside that morning, complaining to a contractor crew about the smell - a security camera caught him waving his hand in front of his nose as he spoke to them. The crew had valid permits to be there. Underneath the sidewalk, the gas was still flowing. The explosion came at 10:06 a.m.

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

2019 Durham Gas Explosion: Kong Lee and Jay Rambeaut

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. Kong Lee owned Kaffeinate. He was in the shop that morning helping evacuate his customers and staff - city officials confirmed that eight to ten people had been led out of the building in the minutes before the blast. Lee was preparing to leave too, still moving through the shop,...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

2019 Durham Gas Explosion: Sixty Minutes of Gas

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. The investigation report from the Durham Fire Department later traced the sequence with grim precision. A three-person crew from a contractor called Optic Cable Technology was using a horizontal-drilling machine to install underground fiber-optic cable along North Duke Street. Th...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

2019 Durham Gas Explosion: The Blast Wave

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. The explosion was felt several miles away. The smoke plume showed up on local weather radar. Fifteen buildings in and around the Brightleaf District suffered damage. The coffee shop was reduced to rubble. An adjacent building housing a private Porsche collection was destroyed - t...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

2019 Durham Gas Explosion: Lawsuits, Rebuilds, and a Memorial Block

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. Vincent Price, the president of Duke University, confirmed in the days after the blast that ten Duke employees had been hurt. Durham mayor Steve Schewel ordered a city review of utility-locate procedures and contractor coordination. On June 22, 2020, four separate lawsuits were f...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain