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Gas main damaged before Somerset explosion

2:30 PM Tue, Mar 03, 2009 |
Gina Macris    Email

SOMERSET, Mass. -- New England Gas has discovered that the gas main on New York Avenue had been damaged sometime before a Feb. 19 explosion that killed a homeowner and her dog, according to a letter the company sent the town.

For more than an hour before the blast, which killed Rosemarie Rebello and flattened her home, and forced the evacuation of an entire neighborhood, the police had received numerous calls about a strong odor of gas in the area.

Firefighters and gas company workers had been dispatched to try to trace the source of the apparent leak. But they were not in time to prevent the blast.

In a letter to the town dated Feb. 27, New England Gas said that it had isolated a 200-foot section of gas main where the gas leak originated and found within it a "short section where the gas main was damaged and breached."

"The longer stretch of gas main itself was in good condition, but that short section of the main appears to have been physically damaged by a third party contractor sometime after it was installed in the 1960s," wrote James F. Kern, manager of gas distribution.

Although Kern noted that sewers were installed in the 1970s, he said that "we will not comment on who damaged the gas main, how it was damaged, or when that damage occurred. "
"We will assure you that the damaged gas main was taken out of service and isolated immediately after the incident," he said.
"Further details will need to await the completion of the investigation," Kern said.
The town released the letter today, but Fire Chief Scott H. Jepson declined additional comment while the investigation continues.
He said his department and the state Fire Marshal's Office are still awaiting autopsy results and other test results, but other aspects of the investigation could take months.
Jepson said the gas company is cooperating with the investigatory agencies, which include the state Department of Public Utilities, the state Fire Marshal's Office , and local police and fire departments.

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Comments

pod said:

I am confused and the article frustrates by not addressing the question: How could there be a twenty year delay between damage to a main and an explosion in only one of the houses on that main? What took twenty years to occur? Why that house? What occured? Wouldn't the gas follow the path of least resistance along the big main excavation or to the surface?
How about a reporter addressing these obvious issues? Okay maybe the answer will be don't know or can't answer but the story and the company imply that this is an explanation for the event. Not in my mind.
Twenty years ago I stubbed my toe; maybe that's why I needed a hip replacement???

Link | March 3, 2009 7:06 PM
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