Jonathan Steiner didn’t think much when he first smelled gas in his Twinsburg Township neighborhood, one afternoon this past June.
After noticing a firetruck outside, he headed back upstairs to his office, where he works remotely. Then, his wife called, urging him to get out of the house.
"Right then the explosion happened," he said. "Knocked our back door in, blew blinds off the walls ... I thought it was our house that blew up, it was so loud and strong."
Without stopping to put on shoes, Steiner fled his home, along with his 11-year-old son and family dog.
The explosion in his neighborhood occurred because of a gas leak, while fiber optic work was being performed in the area. Three homes behind his own were destroyed, and at least three dozen others were damaged.
The state is still investigating what exactly went wrong. But communities across the region say it's not an isolated incident, reporting utility strikes, damaged property and poor communication from contractors.
Over the last four years, an increase in state and federal broadband funding has brought more fiber optic installations to the region — and more challenges.
In 2024, the state received 162 complaints of damage from excavation, like the kind performed to install fiber. In 2025, that jumped to 432.
Complaint reports detail problems like incorrect utility markings, failures by utilities to mark their lines and over 100 cases of failing to call before digging.
Incidents prompt moratoriums on fiber optic work
In the city of Cortland, a series of utility strikes last summer led to a 90-day moratorium on fiber optic boring.
"Over a week or two, we had a gas line hit, a water line hit," said Cortland City Councilmember Chelsea Munroe. "And that was a little bit concerning, being that it was the same company that had hit multiple lines in that short period of time."
Cortland didn't have an ordinance in place requiring fiber companies to obtain permits or share their installation plans, meaning a company could come in and start a project without ever notifying anyone.
Now, the city council is considering a new set of rules, which include greater coordination between fiber companies and the city.
"We want a permitting process," Munroe said. "We want to know exactly what streets you are going to work on. We want to the timeframe that you're going do this. We want the project plans to be submitted so that we can review them."
That process will be adapted to new technology often used for fiber optic work, known as horizontal directional drilling.
"They basically take a rod, and drill through the ground one way and then they grab onto the pipe, and they pull it back through," Munroe said.
Horizontal drilling is growing in popularity because it involves less digging than open trenching. But it can mean less visibility while bringing those cables through, and regulations are still catching up to the practice.
Growing number of communities consider regulations
The city of Hudson, which sit just to the south of Twinsburg Township, passed its own set of rules for fiber optic installation after the explosion and its own experiences with utility strikes.
Those requirements include verifying the location of existing utilities every 50 feet, and greater clearances between new fiber cables and existing utility lines.
In Medina County, engineer Andy Conrad made his own recommendations to commissioners, which include greater communication with residents and limiting fiber companies to four installation permits at a time.
But he said those proposals still won't be able to address many of the complaints he receives.
"They're digging up people's front yards, and they're not happy with the restoration, or there are electric dog fences, irrigation lines that may get hit," Conrad said.
Many of those issues arise from work performed on private utility easements, which give companies the right to perform utility work on private property. Local governments don't have the authority to regulate private easements.
"So, it has been somewhat difficult trying to wrangle some of the repairs and working between the fiber companies and the residents to get them to be made whole," he said.
Some local officials want state to have more oversight
In Howland Township, Administrator James Pantalone wants the state to step in.
Unlike cities or villages, townships have limited authority under Ohio law to regulate utilities. When Pantalone receives a valid request to perform excavation work, he said he has to approve it.
And when Howland Township experienced several power outages last year while fiber optic installation was taking place, he didn't have the power to shut that work down. Instead, he eventually asked the company to pause voluntarily.
"When we had our incident and I basically showed up at the scene and said I've had enough," he said. "They did end up shutting down that day, and they went on a two week stop while we met and navigated things."
But Pantalone doesn't want to rely on companies choosing to do the right thing.
"Our plea to the legislature is, you need to get with the times," he said. "You approved all this, you're pushing broadband infrastructure expansion, but you never looked back at all the safety implications and regulation of this."
If there is a complaint that someone violated Ohio's safe digging laws, one committee under the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio can review the case and determine any fines or other consequences.
But aside from complaints brought to the committee, Ohio law doesn't give the PUCO the authority to regulate broadband.
The state did make some moves to address excavation safety before the Twinsburg explosion, adding requirements to call Ohio 811 within 48 hours and shortening the timelines between utility markings and excavation work.
Ohio Senator Casey Weinstein (D - Hudson) says there are still cracks in the system he hopes to address with new legislation.
"Some of the things that we're looking at are ensuring that markings are accurate ... that we're using the absolute safest drilling procedures and that we have adequate notification in place," he said.
Weinstein said he's still waiting for investigation reports from the Twinsburg explosion before finalizing any bill for consideration.
Without more oversight, Cortland City Councilmember Chelsea Munroe expects there will be more challenges ahead as fiber companies continue to compete.
"So gas and electric, you have one main entity that owns those lines, but you have multiple different suppliers ... where, with fiber optics, each company is going to run their own line," she said. "It's going to make it like spaghetti under the ground."
