FRANKLIN, Va. — This month marks one year since one person died and another was critically injured following a propane gas explosion at a duplex inside the Berkley Court Apartments on April 15, 2022.
"People remember that night and how it shook their home," said Franklin City Manager Amanda Jarratt.
Jarratt says since the explosion, all residents have moved back into the apartment community, but getting there was an uphill battle.
"It was a really frustrating time for the entire city staff," she said. "We were trying to make sure that the residents had access to as many resources as possible to protect their rights, as well as working with the ownership to make sure that they moved as fast as possible."
Since propane was used to heat residents' homes, community members lost access to hot water for months after the explosion.
At the time, News 3 spoke with a woman named Danielle Smallwood, who had been living at the apartment complex for seven years with her eight daughters and fiancé.
“Whatever I’m cleaning, whatever I’m doing, I have to boil water because there’s no hot water,” she explained. "I'm very frustrated, very."
Eventually, residents were provided mobile shower units, but they say they were inconvenient and didn't appear to be wheelchair-accessible. Residents were also given the option to shower at hotels or a nearby Love's Travel Stop, but many of them didn't have adequate transportation to get there.
Towanda, a Berkley Court resident News 3 spoke with recently, still remembers how difficult it was to get her five children ready for school.
"You had to boil water to wash everyone up individually, make sure they [had] water to brush their teeth, and then they were late for school," she explained. "Everybody's lives changed. At that very moment, everybody's lives changed."
Jarratt says some children were even living outside of the city so they could have hot water, which caused difficulties for Franklin Public Schools.
"We did have individuals staying as far away as Suffolk and we didn't want their education to be disrupted," said Jarratt. "We worked with the school systems as closely as possible to make sure that those children that had been relocated were able to attend school."
Meanwhile, Towanda says she was never compensated for the inconvenience.
"They made us waste gas," she said. "I was late to work, it was just a mess,"
Towanda also expressed disappointment about the property management company, Severn Companies, not doing anything to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the explosion that took her neighbor's life.
"It was a life that was taken, so you would think that the property managers would have done something," she said. "They don't care. Like, it was a life that was taken. That should mean something."
The person who lost their life during the explosion was 59-year-old Michael Wiggins.
Wiggins' cousin, Howard Murphy, says he was a kind man.
"He was a nice guy, and I want everyone to know he had a name. His name was Michael Wiggins," Murphy told News 3 shortly after Wiggins' death.
Wiggins was transported to a hospital immediately following the explosion but later died from his injuries.
"I know he's out of his misery. I know he suffered a lot, but God makes no mistakes," added Murphy.
On December 28, 2022, the Wiggins family filed a wrongful death lawsuit related to the 59-year-old's death.
The lawsuit was filed against Berkley Court Apartments L.P., Southside Gas Service INC., Severn Companies, and two specific individuals listed as property managers. The family is requesting $100 million, along with $5 million in punitive damages, for a total of $105 million.
The lawsuit claims the defendants had a duty to ensure the apartment complex and propane gas system were safe, and that their negligence resulted in a "massive fire ball," engulfing Wiggins' home and eventually killing him.
A second lawsuit has also been filed against Berkley Court Apartments L.P. and Severn Companies by Wiggins' neighbor.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Dionne Whitehead, says she was at her home in Berkley Court Apartments when the explosion tore through the building, causing her to suffer massive burns. The lawsuit further states that Whitehead is expected to sustain permanent injuries from the incident, including scars and disfigurement.
Since the explosion, the 73 remaining units of the apartment community have had their propane systems replaced by electric water heaters. Jarratt says it took at least three months to make those transitions and restore hot water to all the residents.
"It was a variety of inspections and contractors that had to be involved to make sure that the conversion was complete," she explained.
The city also assisted in getting theproperty demolished in June.
But while the home where the incident happened may have disappeared from sight, the emotional distress and trauma experienced by Berkley Court residents still lingers.
"A lot of individuals had some post-traumatic stress, like worried about what might happen next and the safety, not only for themselves but for their children," added Jarratt. "We have asked the ownership and management company to continue with the resident meetings just so there is additional communication, especially with the trauma that this community has been through. I'm not sure they're as frequent as we'd like as a city."
News 3 reached out to Severn Companies for an update on how they have been working with the community over the last year and to see if they had any response to the ongoing lawsuits. Their response, received on April 25, 2023, is as follows:
We understand the impact the April 2022 incident made on the Berkley Court Apartments community and have worked diligently to support residents of the community over the last year. On Monday, April 25, 2022 several teams were at Berkley Court Apartments, conducting precautionary unit-by-unit inspections for any structural damage that could have been caused by the incident. No other units were structurally impacted by the incident with only minor damage to the units closest to the site of the incident.
Following the incident, in order to get hot water back to all units as quickly as possible, we replaced the gas water heaters with electric water heaters.
We currently cannot comment on any ongoing litigation. Shortly after the incident Berkley Court Apartments had several meetings with residents. In those meetings and in several subsequent communications with residents we provided contact information to various counseling resources and invited residents to let the management company if they needed any help in accessing such services.
Our residents have been enjoying the community and have had all utilities restored for normal operation for approximately 10 months.
