Gas explosions caused fires in Massachusetts

RadishRose

RadishRose

SF VIP
Location
Connecticut, USA
Hoping our friends in MA aren't affected !

(CNN)Homes went up in flames Thursday in three Massachusetts towns north of Boston, consumed by more than 60 suspected gas fires.

Gas technicians and first responders were going door-to-door reviewing thousands of homes in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover and shutting down gas mains.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/14/us/massachusetts-explosions-fires/index.html
 

This is crazy! I've got two friends that were affected by this and had to evacuate their homes. The Columbia Gas Co is gonna have some hefty lawsuits on their hands.
 
JimW said:
This is crazy! I've got two friends that were affected by this and had to evacuate their homes. The Columbia Gas Co is gonna have some hefty lawsuits on their hands.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear this Jim. I assume no injuries for your friends, thank goodness. I hear it's like a war zone up there.

house.jpg
 
Warrigal said:
It is very hard to fathom what could have happened.
Is it faulty equipment or fittings causing the problem?
Click to expand...

so far, the Boston Globe reports-

"
A spokeswoman for the state fire marshal’s office said investigators are focusing on overpressurization of a gas main owned by Columbia Gas, which serves about 50,000 customers in and around Lawrence and had been upgrading its equipment in the area."
 
RadishRose said:
Sorry to hear this Jim. I assume no injuries for your friends, thank goodness. I hear it's like a war zone up there.
Click to expand...

Thankfully everyone I know is okay as well as their property. They did have problems with the mass evacuation though due to all of the roads being jam packed with traffic. One of my friends ended up taking two of their neighbor's dogs cause those folks weren't home yet.

It was scary to watch a good number of those houses burning without any firetrucks on sight to put them out. They simply ran out of resources. I live 15/20 miles away and they called in engines from my town and the surrounding towns.
 
RadishRose said:
Chaos!
Click to expand...

They're saying on the news that they have no idea when it will be safe for people to return home. At the very least every building must have it's gas turned off before people can be allowed back and that will take days if not weeks in some areas. Even when they do go back the people will have no gas appliances, furnaces or water heaters. They're also saying that there's a good chance that all of these gas appliances may have been damaged by the high gas pressure and will have to be replaced. Totally nuts!
 
JimW said:
They're saying on the news that they have no idea when it will be safe for people to return home. At the very least every building must have it's gas turned off before people can be allowed back and that will take days if not weeks in some areas. Even when they do go back the people will have no gas appliances, furnaces or water heaters. They're also saying that there's a good chance that all of these gas appliances may have been damaged by the high gas pressure and will have to be replaced. Totally nuts!
Click to expand...

I saw something where they want to make sure all the gas meters have a safety device to cut off or slow excess gas/pressure. Theoretically if a gas appliance has electronic ignition the gas valve should not have been open and hopefully not damaged but those with lit pilots might have the biggest issue. Somebody messed up bad, I don't even know if it was faulty equipment as much as it was human error. I've read some reports that the gas pressure could've been 50-100 times greater than normal. Someone supposedly attached a high pressure line to low pressure lines feeding the homes. Others say safety valves failed.

Also there are reports that this company has had issues in the past

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...jor-rupture/NYkiRlG5FwlLzQOeV02YoI/story.html

Good Luck to all of those affected
 
WhatInThe said:
I saw something where they want to make sure all the gas meters have a safety device to cut off or slow excess gas/pressure. Theoretically if a gas appliance has electronic ignition the gas valve should not have been open and hopefully not damaged but those with lit pilots might have the biggest issue. Somebody messed up bad, I don't even know if it was faulty equipment as much as it was human error. I've read some reports that the gas pressure could've been 50-100 times greater than normal. Someone supposedly attached a high pressure line to low pressure lines feeding the homes. Others say safety valves failed.

Also there are reports that this company has had issues in the past

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...jor-rupture/NYkiRlG5FwlLzQOeV02YoI/story.html

Good Luck to all of those affected
Click to expand...

If the pressure was as high as they say it was, it would have cause problems with the regulators and internal parts of any gas appliance, old or new. They're simply not meant to handle that sort of pressure.

As for the cause of all this, I'm betting it was both human and mechanical error. The human error would be connecting the high pressure lines to the low pressure inputs and pressure safety valves would have to have failed as well. There is also a theory of criminal acts being the cause, the FBI has been called in to investigate.
 
JimW said:
If the pressure was as high as they say it was, it would have cause problems with the regulators and internal parts of any gas appliance, old or new. They're simply not meant to handle that sort of pressure.

As for the cause of all this, I'm betting it was both human and mechanical error. The human error would be connecting the high pressure lines to the low pressure inputs and pressure safety valves would have to have failed as well. There is also a theory of criminal acts being the cause, the FBI has been called in to investigate.
Click to expand...

Saw one report where a resident reports flames coming out of his boiler-in the summer so for that amount of flame that takes a lot of gas. Almost sounds like something blew apart and/or lost any seals. They said there's devices that could've been on the gas meters to prevent what happened. It sounds like this utility did almost nothing in the way of routine upgrades and/or maintenance.
 
JimW said:
Thankfully everyone I know is okay as well as their property. They did have problems with the mass evacuation though due to all of the roads being jam packed with traffic. One of my friends ended up taking two of their neighbor's dogs cause those folks weren't home yet.

It was scary to watch a good number of those houses burning without any firetrucks on sight to put them out. They simply ran out of resources. I live 15/20 miles away and they called in engines from my town and the surrounding towns.
Click to expand...

We drove home from Maine yesterday and avoided Rte. 495, the interstate that passes close to these towns. They had closed the off highway ramps in half a dozen locations so as to keep people out of those towns. Fortunately, the death count was low, considering how some of the houses were destroyed. One poor 18 yr. old was killed when the chimney of a house dropped on the roof of his car.

Traffic was horrendous, even on the other highway circling Boston, Rte. 95 (old 128) . We're heading back to Maine on Tuesday and I expect the traffic situation will have improved although there's no telling when access to the towns will be back to normal.
 
My mom's God daughter lives in Andover but she and her family were okay. She did have trouble getting home from work because of all the ramp closures. Otherwise all was well.
 
Oh my gosh! I grew up near there! Very scary.
Jay Leno is from Andover and George Bush attended an Academy in Andover (Phillips I think).
Wow
 
This is extremely frightening! That it took place in several locations at once makes it that much more frightening. How many other homes and areas are at risk?! No one expects that one day, they will no longer have a home to go back to. I feel so sorry for those who lost their homes. And I especially feel sorry for the family of that young man who was killed. Such a tragedy!

It especially hits home with me because for months intermittently we were smelling gas in our building's hallway. The fire department and gas utility company had come out a couple of times and could not find anything wrong. It seems the smell of gas would come and go. Finally earlier in the year, when we were smelling gas again, they went through each apartment in two buildings (that are connected) in our complex (24 apartments in all). They opened the walls in the kitchen and in some apartments in another part of the house too. Of course our gas was shut off until they finished the work. Workmen even opened the walls in the outer hallways. I still think I detect the faint smell of gas sometimes. Praying that we don't someday become crispy critters!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top