CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE)- It’s been one year since a deadly explosion in the middle of a Ballantyne neighborhood. Before and after pictures show the devastation still left behind.
The debris from the home is gone. A house next door is still being repaired, the one on the other side has been condemned, and there is still even debris in the trees. Neighbors told me today it has been a tough year.
On July 2, 2019, James Jack Lane was rocked by a massive explosion.
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A concrete slab and backyard pool are still here. Investigators say the house exploded after an accidental natural gas leak as the homeowners returned from out of town.
If you look closely, evidence of that explosion is still on the property. Neighbors tell FOX 46 the family still owns this lot and are waiting to take the next steps.
Just a few hundred feet from the explosion site in a quiet park, neighbors purchased a bench to remember Rania Karam, who died in the explosion. Someone left flowers to honor her Thursday.
“She was a very close friend and she was somebody who helped me connect with some of my roots and she was fabulous. She is loving. Whenever I would be in contact with her she would say love you so much.”
Most neighbors were too upset to appear on camera one year later, saying off camera that they lost one of their favorite neighbors that day in Rania, as well as several other neighbors who never moved back to their damaged homes.
FOX 46 has been told it could still be quite some time before this neighborhood is repaired. One neighbor said he was promised his home would be repaired 90 days following the explosion, but those repairs still haven’t been made.