Balch Springs strip mall closed after gas leak explosion injures 2

BALCH SPRINGS, Texas - A strip mall in Balch Springs is still closed after it exploded earlier this month.

Grainy cell phone video captured the immediate aftermath of an explosion at small strip mall located off Pioneer Road on August 19.

The city's fire chief tells FOX 4 the explosion seemed to center around a nail salon in the middle of the plaza.

He says the explosion was so strong it picked up the walls and dropped them back down.

There were about a dozen people inside at the time of the explosion.

Dark smoke was billowing from the roof.

"Once we got there, there was a lot of damage, a lot chaos," said fire chief Eric Neal.

Neal says firefighters began tending to the wounded. Among them, a pregnant woman who was inside the nail salon when the explosion happened.

She and another patient were taken to the hospital and treated for minor injuries.

"We don’t know where the gas started it, but was concentrated above the nail salon. Once it exploded, the way it looks from both walls next to nail salon, it literally lifted the walls and settled down in place and the two adjacent buildings were affected by that," said Neal.

While the search continues for the source of the gas leak, Balch Springs Emergency Management sent their drone up and got a view of the damage from above. Chief Neal says the debris field was telling.

"We could see the entire roof open like a can.  Like I said before we were very fortunate that it happened because most of it was concentrated up and out. But that explosion literally lifted the building," said Neal.

For now the entire plaza remains shut down until a structural engineer can determine whether it is salvageable.

In the meantime, some of the businesses you can see are directing customers to other locations but for some people this is their only location, meaning no customers.