In February 2010, what was seemingly a routine sewer backup at a home in St. Paul, Minnesota, went horribly wrong.
There was a flash fire and then an explosion after the contractor put a drain snake with a cutting bit down the clogged line. The contractor was badly burned and the homeowner barely escaped unharmed. The issue was an undetected cross bore. A natural gas line was running through the home’s backed-up sewer line, so when that cutting bit sliced through the fragile PVC gas pipe, the seemingly routine job became anything but.That’s just one example showcasing the importance of cross-bore
