Man arrested in 2022 gas explosion at Westworth Village home that damaged 5 other houses
A man has been arrested and accused of intentionally causing a natural gas explosion that destroyed his house and damaged other homes near Fort Worth in 2022, Westworth Village police said Tuesday.
Mitchell Glenn Evans, 33, was taken into custody on Saturday in Brown County by Brownwood police on a charge of arson of a habitation, a first-degree felony.
Evans was the only person inside his Westworth Village home in the 5600 block of Watters Place when the house exploded around 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 1, 2022, police said. Evans was taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas in critical condition for burns he suffered in the blast.
The explosion caused structural damage that left about five other houses on the street uninhabitable, city officials said at the time.
The investigation, which unfolded over more than a year, revealed Evans was responsible for the explosion, police said in a news release.
According to a search warrant obtained by the Star-Telegram, investigators learned that Evans’ wife left him and took their children with her two days before the explosion.
On the day and night leading up to the explosion, Evans sent his wife numerous messages through voicemail, text and social media in which he threatened to harm or kill himself and said he “had a plan” to do so, an investigator wrote in an affidavit supporting the search warrant.
Atmos Energy records reviewed by investigators showed “an incredibly high and unusual delivery of natural gas” to the couple’s home between 4 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. the day of the blast, the warrant stated. The amount of natural gas was “consistent with the results that would be reported if someone intentionally released natural gas into the home,” according to the warrant.
The records showed the house could have been filled with four times the amount of natural gas needed to cause a destructive explosion when ignited by a open flame, the warrant stated.
The warrant also noted that Evans had training as a plumber, which meant he had knowledge of how natural gas fixtures work.
The Fort Worth Fire Department’s Arson/Bomb Unit and ATF, in addition to other local police departments, assisted Westworth Village police in the investigation.
Atmos Energy also responded to the scene to help with the investigation. The electricity and natural gas in the Westworth Village neighborhood were turned off as a precaution following the explosion.
