A natural gas explosion and fire destroyed Zimmy’s Tavern on Sunset Boulevard in Union, Michigan early Tuesday morning, July 28, injuring a man who was hospitalized in serious condition and an area firefighter. The National Transportation Safety Board has since sent a team to investigate.
That last detail is the one families should pay attention to. The NTSB does not respond to ordinary structure fires. Its involvement means the federal government is treating this as a natural gas accident, and it changes what an injured person needs to do in the first days afterward.
What is known about the Union, Michigan explosion
The Porter Township Fire Department was called to the tavern at about 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 28. A gas leak was found at the scene, nearby residents were evacuated, and Sunset Boulevard between U.S. 12 and Wayne Street stayed closed into the evening. The 80 year old tavern was left a near total loss.
According to WNDU, a gas leak caused the explosion and fire, an attribution the station credits to the Cass County Road Commission. The same report states that the NTSB “is sending a team to investigate what it described as a natural gas fueled explosion at the location.”
ABC57 reported that a 48 year old man from White Pigeon was taken to a hospital in serious condition, and that a firefighter injured at the scene was treated and has been released. Local coverage from 95.3 MNC notes that a gas leak was discovered on scene while the exact cause remains undetermined, with the fire investigation led by state and local authorities.
No gas operator, contractor or excavator has been named. Nothing published so far says that a gas line was struck or damaged by anyone. Those are open questions, and they are the questions an investigation exists to answer.
Why an NTSB team on the scene matters
The NTSB investigates transportation accidents, and natural gas distribution pipelines fall inside that authority. When a gas explosion draws a federal team rather than only a local fire marshal, it usually signals that investigators want to examine the pipeline system itself, meaning the mains and services in the street, the leak history, the operator’s response to reported odors, and whether anyone had recently dug near the line.
Practically, an NTSB pipeline investigation follows a predictable rhythm. A go team documents and preserves the physical evidence, a short preliminary report of factual findings usually follows within weeks, and a final report stating probable cause can take a year or more. Families are often surprised by that gap, and by what happens in it.
There is also a limit worth understanding early. Under 49 U.S.C. 1154(b), no part of an NTSB report may be admitted into evidence or used in a civil action for damages. The Board’s probable cause finding is not something an injured person can simply hand to a jury. The underlying facts can still be established, but they have to be developed independently, by lawyers and experts working the case in parallel with the federal investigation rather than waiting for it.
That is the reason waiting for the NTSB is the wrong instinct. By the time a final report is published, the pipe, the fittings and the operator’s records may be years past the moment when they were easy to secure.
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Who can be responsible in a natural gas explosion
In a distribution gas case, responsibility rarely rests with the person who was injured or with the business that occupied the building. The parties whose conduct is examined typically include the following.
- The gas operator or utility, including how it maintained and surveyed its mains and services, how it responded to any reported odor of gas, and whether it followed its own emergency procedures.
- Any excavator or contractor working near the line, if digging damaged a pipe or a fitting.
- The company responsible for locating and marking underground lines before excavation, since a line that is never marked cannot be avoided.
- The installer or servicer of the building’s gas piping, meter set, regulator or appliances.
- A property owner or manager who knew of a gas odor or a defective appliance and did nothing about it.
None of that has been established here, and no defendant has been identified. That is normal at this stage of a gas explosion, and it is not a reason for an injured family to assume there is no case. Identifying the responsible company is the work, not a precondition for starting.
For a dated example of how these investigations resolve, our coverage of the NTSB’s findings in the Bel Air, Maryland house explosion shows the Board tracing probable cause to a utility’s handling of a reported gas leak. In a separate April 2025 case in Lexington, Missouri, the NTSB’s preliminary report described a fatal explosion that followed a subcontractor drilling into a gas main that had not been marked. Different facts, same lesson, which is that the answer usually lies in records and physical evidence rather than in what was visible on the day.
The evidence that disappears first
After a gas explosion the scene is a debris field, and it is being managed by parties with their own interests. Utility crews, insurers and company representatives are often on site within hours.
The items that decide these cases are specific. They include the excavated pipe segment and its fittings, the meter set and regulator, the operator’s leak survey and maintenance records for that street, odorization records, one call or dig ticket records if any excavation occurred nearby, and recordings or logs of any prior calls reporting a smell of gas. An independent investigator can request preservation of all of it. Nobody else has a reason to.
Our gas explosion lawyers treat that preservation step as the first order of business, before liability is even argued.
Injuries in a gas explosion are frequently worse than they first appear
A gas explosion injures in several ways at once. The pressure wave can cause internal and orthopedic injuries with little visible damage, the fire that follows can cause serious burns, and inhalation of superheated air and smoke can injure the airway in ways that develop over the hours after rescue.
Where burns are involved, treatment at a regional burn center can mean repeated surgeries, grafting, infection control and months of rehabilitation, followed by long term scarring, contracture and pain. Our burn injury lawyers investigate gas explosions nationwide and work with treating specialists so that the lifetime cost of care is documented rather than guessed at, and our explosion burn injury page explains how those damages are proven.
What an injured person or family should do now
- Put medical care first. Everything else can be handled by someone acting on the family’s behalf.
- Ask, in writing, that the pipe, fittings, meter, regulator and appliances be preserved and not discarded, cleaned or repaired before an independent examination.
- Photograph what is safe to photograph, and write down the names of every company whose crews were on site.
- Keep every document, including hospital records, utility bills and notices, service records, and any past complaint about a gas odor.
- Do not give a recorded statement to an insurer or a utility representative before understanding what caused the explosion.
- Ask for a free case review to learn whether an independent investigation is warranted while the evidence still exists.
Talk to a lawyer who handles gas explosion cases
Pritzker Hageman is a national personal injury and wrongful death firm that represents people catastrophically injured by explosions and fires, in Michigan and in every other state. We investigate the pipeline system, the operator’s records and the work of every contractor who touched it, rather than accepting the first explanation offered.
There is no cost to talk with us and no fee unless we win. Call 1-888-377-8900 or contact us online to reach an attorney directly.
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We obtained this settlement for a man who lost his arm and leg in a gas pipeline explosion.
Our client suffered a traumatic brain injury and burn injuries over 60% of his body in an explosion caused by improperly-odorized propane.
Our client suffered burn injuries over 50% of her body when a compressed natural gas line ruptured in a factory, causing an explosion.
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