Dozens of gas blasts rock Boston suburbs, killing a minimum of one, injuring twelve
Friday, September 14, 2018
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ANDOVER, Mass. (Reuters) - Dozens of explosions, apparently triggered by a gas pipeline rupture, rocked 3 communities close to Boston on weekday, killing a minimum of one person, injuring twelve and prompting the evacuation of a whole lot, officers aforementioned.
The blasts left dozens of homes and different buildings razed or engulfed in flames as firefighters from some fifty departments raced for hours from one blaze to a different and utility crews hurried to shut off gas and electricity within the space to stop more ignitions.
Police drove up and down streets with bull horns telling residents to vacate their homes directly.
Fire investigators suspected “over-pressurization of a gas main” happiness to Columbia Gas of Massachusetts light-emitting diode to the series of explosions and fires, Andover fire-eater Michael Mansfield told a group discussion.
Columbia Gas, a unit of the utility big NiSource Iraqi National Congress (NI.N), proclaimed earlier on weekday that it might be upgrading gas lines in neighborhoods across the state, as well as the realm wherever the explosions occurred. However, it absolutely was not directly far-famed whether or not any work was being exhausted those communities at the time.
“Columbia Gas is work what happened on its system nowadays,” NiSource spokesperson Ken Stammen aforementioned.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and unsafe Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) aforementioned it absolutely was causation a team to support the state’s emergency response efforts.
The former head of the agency, Brigham McCown, known as the series of gas explosions “unprecedented, a minimum of in recent memory.”
“I can’t think about a series of natural gas-related incidents like this,” McCown, United Nations agency light-emitting diode PHMSA below President Saint George W. Bush, told Reuters by phonephone. “We have had similar problems on a way smaller scale.”
He aforementioned the National Transportation Safety Board was additionally causation a team headed by its chairman, parliamentarian Sumwalt, to analyze the disaster.
Live TV pictures showed firefighters battling blazes within the former mill cities of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover, concerning twenty five miles (40 km) north of the Massachusetts capital.
The streets were darkened once crepuscle with power discontinue to the realm as a precaution.
‘OVERWHELMING EVENT’
Lawrence General Hospital aforementioned on its Facebook page it treated thirteen folks for injuries starting from smoke inhalation to trauma. one in every of those patients, United Nations agency was in crucial condition, was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. officers told Reuters that patient later died.
At least 3 folks, as well as one fire-eater, were hurt in Andover, the city aforementioned during a statement, however it absolutely was unclear whether or not any of these people were among the patients treated in Lawrence, a number of whom were later discharged.
Massachusetts State Police aforementioned a complete of seventy fires, explosions or investigations of gas odor had been reported . Some fifty fireplace departments older the emergency, aforementioned John McArdle, fire-eater of Plaistow, New Hampshire, that sent a tower ladder and engine crew to the scene.
North Andover resident Laurie Williams, 55, aforementioned she drove home from work to search out police and fireplace vehicles interference streets close to her home and learned that 3 buildings close were ablaze.
“It was terribly chilling,” Williams told Reuters by phonephone, voice communication she might see smoke on the skyline. “My 1st thought was this is often a gas explosion.”
Lawrence city manager Dan Rivera aforementioned residents within the southern a part of town had been asked to depart their homes whether or not or not they were Columbia Gas customers, thanks to planned power cuts.
Gas utilities have come back below heightened scrutiny in recent years for Associate in Nursing aging network of pipelines that critics say don't seem to be being properly inspected and maintained, motility a growing risk to public safety.
Friday’s conflagrations came six years once Columbia Gas accepted blame for a gas explosion in Springfield, Massachusetts, that lac seventeen folks Associate in Nursingd caused an calculable $1.3 million in property harm
That occurred once a Columbia Gas technician known as to analyze a gas odor at a club accidentally pierced a line, the state Department of Public Utilities aforementioned during a report.
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