Employees Safe After NC Gas Explosion Of Former Arvada Company

DURHAM, NC — One man was killed and 17 others were injured Wednesday in a deadly gas explosion in Durham that blew up the headquarters of a formerly Arvada-based company.

The corporate offices of construction software company Prescient Co., Inc. was housed at 115 North Duke St. in the downtown Durham building. The building is part of historic Brightleaf Square surrounded by locally owned restaurants and shops.

Prescient moved its corporate offices to Durham from Arvada in 2017.

Prescient Chairman Satyen Patel released a statement on Thursday:

As you may be aware, yesterday there was a tragic gas explosion in downtown Durham that destroyed our HQ office. I’m extremely grateful that all our employees are safe and am thankful to the first responders and Durham officials for acting so bravely. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was affected yesterday. This is a time of reflection for all of us to recognize how precious every day is that we have with our family, friends and colleagues.

We have temporarily relocated our headquarters staff to our manufacturing facility in Mebane, NC. All our operations have and will continue to perform normally and our customers across the country will not be impacted. This experience will serve to make us a stronger team than ever before. We are thankful to have supporters such as you to help us through this difficult time.

Investigators determined the explosion was caused by a contractor who struck a gas line around 10:30 a.m. outside a specialty coffee shop on the block.

Kong Lee, the 61-year-old owner of Kaffeinate coffee shop was killed in the blast.

Mayor Steve Schewel called the deadly gas explosion, which occurred on Durham's 150th anniversary, a "terrible tragedy" and said he felt a "real sense of loss and grief."

"This is the kind of day you never prepare for as a mayor," said Schewel. "It's not something that you necessarily ever think that you're going to have to face."

Fire officials said the blast impacted five buildings. Firefighter Darren Wheeler was seriously hurt and is out of surgery. He is recovering from his injuries.

"As far as all of the people who were known to be in the buildings or around have been accounted for, but there are still significant areas we need to search," said Bob Zoldos, fire chief of the city's fire department.

There was a significant fire, he said, and all fires have been contained or are under control. Search and rescue operations are still underway. This includes tunneling and de-layering of the building. This process could take a couple days and the area could be shut down for days, police said.

Police and city officials warned the public to avoid Brightleaf Square, which was blocked off.

"Our first responders are on scene now & working hard to get this under control," the city tweeted. "You can help them by staying away so they can safely & quickly work."

A gas explosion has occurred at 115 N. Duke St. Duke St. from Chapel Hill Rd. to Morgan St. is closed. AVOID the area. pic.twitter.com/9UdKMiKx7h
— Durham EM (@AlertDurham) April 10, 2019

Firefighters are putting out the Kaffeinate fire from all angles pic.twitter.com/pbFEbVh0xc
— Tevan Alexander (@tevan) April 10, 2019

Patch National Editor Dan Hampton contributed to this story.