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Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker speaks at a rally at the Statehouse in Boston on July 27, 2017.
(Associated Press)
Many residents of the Boston suburbs who were driven out of their homes on Thursday after gas explosions and fires killed one person and injured at least 25 others.
Technicians and fire-fighting personnel have closed the gas meters and carried out inspections so that residents can return home and electricity is restored from 7 am, said the governor in a series of messages. Twitter.
Work will continue to assess the damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover, Baker wrote.
"None of this work is easy and requires a lot of people working together," he added, thanking residents for their patience and the first responders in the area for their help.
FILE: A Columbia Gas employee opens the manhole cover while they work to make sure there is no gas leak at the street corners Parker and Salem in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
(AP)
On Friday, Baker, a Republican in a highly democratic state, declared the state of emergency for the three cities and placed a company called Eversource in charge of repairs in place of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, the company said. electricity that serves the area.
& # 39; Major problems & # 39;
On Saturday, Baker said at a press conference that Columbia Gas was simply too slow to respond to the crisis, and that this had "raised major issues in the capacity of the leadership team," he said. reported the Boston Herald.
Investors have apparently lost confidence as Columbia Gas's parent company, NiSource, saw its shares fall by 11.8% Friday, its worst day since 2001, CNBC reported.
In addition, USA Today reported Saturday that NiSource units have been associated with three previous gas explosion incidents – in Springfield, Mass., And Sissonville, West Virginia, both in 2012 and Upper Arlington, in Ohio.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker visits the site where an 18-year-old man was killed during a gas explosion in Lawrence, Massachusetts on September 14, 2018.
(Associated Press)
In Lawrence, the teams were still working Saturday to turn off the gas meters and restore electricity, the Boston Globe reported. The blasts, which set off fires, affected approximately 8,600 homes and businesses and permanently displaced a dozen families in Lawrence, according to the newspaper.
Baker had ordered these residents to stay away from their homes while officials checked homes and businesses for traces of natural gas. He urged returning residents to be cautious and to call 911 when they smelled gas.
A report of a strong gas smell Saturday morning brought the authorities back to a part of Lawrence most affected by explosions and fires. Firefighters and gas workers opened manholes, tested gas levels and attempted to access businesses on the south side of the city, but the situation was largely confined after 11 hours.
The cause remains unknown
Yet the official cause of the blasts remained unknown, said Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
"We are not here to determine the probable cause," Sumwalt said. "It will happen at a later date." He said the NTSB investigators expected to be on the site for up to 10 days, but a final report on what had happened could take up to two years.
Last Saturday, US Senator Ed Markey, D-Mass., Tweeted, "We need a detailed account of what happened before and during the #MVGasFire" – "MV" doing reference to the Merrimack Valley communities affected by the explosion.
The representative of the United States, Seth Moulton, D-Mass., Told the Herald that human error was to blame. "This is not something that should happen in 2018. The houses literally exploded. Someone said that the overpressure of the gas line – and not a little bit – was involved. "
Sumwalt said the Columbia Gas pipeline controller in Columbus, Ohio, had reported an increase in pressure in areas affected by Thursday's blast. He stated that a review of the pipeline controller's procedures for dealing with such events is underway. Until now, the evidence does not indicate a "criminal behavior," Sumwalt said.
Sumwalt said the NTSB will review the pipeline controller's pressure regulators that control the flow of gas to the Merrimack Valley as well as its recordings up to three weeks before the blast, the Globe reported.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
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