File photoThe Coffee Corner in Homerville is seen in this 2015 photograph. The business was destroyed by a natural gas blast in 2018.

HOMERVILLE — A state investigation into an August explosion in Homerville that destroyed a business and injured three women has proposed millions of dollars in fines against a major natural gas provider.

An inspection report filed Friday by the Public Service Commission’s pipeline safety office proposes approximately $2.3 million in civil fines against Atlanta Gas Light Company. The PSC provided The Valdosta Daily Times with a copy of the report.

On Aug. 17, a construction crew burying fiber optic lines hit a gas line, according to a statement from the Georgia Office of Insurance and Fire Safety. Atlanta Gas Light responded and capped the leak.

Then, several minutes later, the Coffee Corner, 112 E. Dame Ave., exploded, the statement said. Two employees and a customer were taken to the Shands Hospital burn unit in Gainesville, Fla.

Fire investigators and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms determined gas had leaked into a sewer line that had also been breached by the construction crew. The gas seeped through the sewer line into the Coffee Corner, the statement said.

In the investigation report, the PSC says Atlanta Gas Light was in “probable violation” of federal safety standards involving locating and marking of natural gas facilities. The report also says PSC staff found “no evidence” that Atlanta Gas Light considered using a valve to stop the flow of gas to the damaged gas line or that AGL workers monitored gas levels in nearby buildings — both actions required by the company’s own regulations.

The report says Atlanta Gas Light didn’t perform its own investigation into the pipeline damage but allowed a contractor, U.S. Infrastructure Company — which had been tasked with locating underground lines before digging starts — to perform an investigation that was “fatally flawed.”

“The USIC investigators claim that the excavator ‘was boring outside of the scope of all locate requests called in for the area’ has no basis in fact, and demonstrates a failure to properly investigate the damage which led to this explosion,” the report states.

The report also claims Atlanta Gas Light didn’t carry out drug and alcohol testing of involved employees as required by company rules. 

The report will be forwarded to the full Public Safety Commission, which has the final say in the matter, a PSC spokesman said.

Asked for comment, Atlanta Gas Light issued the following statement Monday: “We have received the Georgia Public Service Commission Staff’s investigation report associated with the August 2018 incident in Homerville, Georgia. The Company will review and respond to the report in accordance with the Commission’s procedures.”

The Times reached out to USIC for comment, but phone calls and emails had not been answered by press time.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.