Sept. 15 -- U.S. Rep Seth Moulton said human error is likely to blame for the frightening series of fires and explosions in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover that drove people out of their homes.
“I was told by someone that overpressure of the gas line — and not by a little — is to blame,” the 6th District Democrat told the Herald.
“This is not something that should be happening in 2018,” he added. “Houses were literally blowing up.
“People in Afghanistan go to sleep at night worrying their house will be blown up. People here should not have to worry about that, too,” the Marine veteran added.
Moulton and fellow Bay State delegation members U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas and U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey are demanding answers from Columbia Gas brass.
“Thoughts and prayers are not enough. The residents of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover want answers, and they deserve them,” they write. “We hope that you will provide much-needed clarity as to how this incident happened and how Columbia Gas will prevent a similar event from occurring in the future.”
Andover fire Chief Michael Mansfield also criticized Columbia Gas for its response to Thursday’s fires, saying the company was missing in action at the town’s command center for much of yesterday, leaving exhausted firefighters and police to coordinate the aftermath of 38 blazes.
A liaison the company had dispatched to the center Thursday night left at 7:30 a.m. yesterday, leaving no one from the company to answer critical questions, Mansfield said, as teams of first responders and Columbia Gas technicians continued to go door-to-door to 1,800 homes and businesses, making sure their gas was off to prevent more fires and explosions.
“We haven’t had a liaison since then, even though we’ve requested one at least 10 times,” he said by mid-afternoon. “It’s been very difficult to get information from Columbia Gas. It’s made our operations more difficult than they probably should be.”
At about 3 p.m., the company did dispatch someone to the command center, but he told first responders he was a field worker who had not been briefed on the situation and had no idea why he had been sent there, Mansfield said.
Columbia Gas could not immediately be reached for comment last night.
Mansfield was in his car on his way home Thursday when, at 4:18 p.m., he heard on his mobile radio a report of a stove fire at Grassfield’s Restaurant on North Main Street.
“It really wasn’t out of the ordinary,” he said, “but within about 90 seconds, we got a report of a building fire on Maple Avenue and then, several seconds later, another building fire, and another. At that point, nothing was making sense.”
Then, on the radio, came a report that the same thing was happening in North Andover and Lawrence.
“That’s when I started thinking it was a gas situation,” Mansfield said.
He immediately paged his 50 off-duty firefighters to back up the 16 who were working that shift.
Over the next four hours, more than 200 firefighters from Andover and as far away as Boston, Worcester and Sandwich battled the blazes, sometimes putting out one fire only to discover another in the house next door.
“I’ve been a firefighter for 39 years,” Mansfield said, “but I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
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