BURLINGAME, Calif. — A Bay Area law firm filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Alameda County and other parties on behalf of an Ashland family whose home was destroyed in a December 2025 gas explosion that hospitalized six people and left multiple family members severely injured.
On May 13, 2026, the Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP law firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Duneas family, alleging negligence and failure to warn residents of a gas leak before the explosion destroyed their home.
According to a press release by Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, on the morning of Dec. 11, an asphalt truck contracted by Alameda County collided with a gas service line operated by PG&E.
PG&E allegedly learned the gas line was leaking near the Duneas family home on East Lewelling Boulevard in Ashland. The suit claims that no PG&E contractor alerted the family. At approximately 9:37 a.m., the gas ignited in an explosion that destroyed the home.
Maria del Socorro Duneas and her daughter, Soledad Flores, were inside the home at the time of the explosion. Maria suffered a fractured neck and severe burns, while Flores suffered two broken ribs. Jesus Duneas Ponce, who was “thrown into the basement” by the explosion, was forced to crawl through debris that broke many of his bones.
In total, six people were hospitalized by the explosion. The complaint makes no reference to any financial hardship endured by the Duneas family from the loss of their home.
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy’s suit on behalf of the Duneas family was filed in Alameda County Superior Court and lists PG&E, Alameda County, the asphalt company contracted by the county and the Duneas family’s landlord, Angela Plowman, as defendants allegedly responsible for the disaster.
“The Duenas family’s home exploded around them without warning,” attorney Niall McCarthy said in the press release. “For more than two hours, these defendants knew gas was leaking near this family’s home, and not one of them knocked on the door and told the Duenas family to leave. This was yet another devastating Bay Area home explosion that was completely avoidable.”
The suit follows a documented history of safety violations and criminal convictions involving PG&E. The complaint references the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion that killed eight people and resulted in the company’s conviction on six felony counts. PG&E also pleaded guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter related to California wildfires that killed more than 100 people between 2017 and 2018.
PG&E has also been accused of misrepresenting critical facts to federal investigators. Following the December Ashland explosion, the complaint alleges PG&E told the National Transportation Safety Board that PG&E employees alerted the Duneas family home. Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy allege that testimony is false and contradicted by the family’s testimony and video footage from the home.
In the complaint, Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy argue that “PG&E had a legal duty to Plaintiffs, as foreseeable victims, to exercise reasonable care in the design, building, installation, operation, maintenance, and inspection of said gas lines, and to take diligent measures to warn [the Duneas family] of any gas leak.”
The complaint further argues that “The County of Alameda further knew or should have known that hiring… [the asphalt company] East Lewelling Boulevard Project near gas lines posed a foreseeable risk of harm and injury to those in the proximity of the Project…”
“PG&E’s record speaks for itself,” McCarthy said in the press release. “This is a company that has been convicted of 90 felonies — and the exposed gas line that destroyed this family’s home is the latest consequence of a corporate culture that has consistently put stock prices and PR above safety enhancements.”
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