Nov 25, 2012
Springfield explosion investigation continues, officials say gas lines are safe
SPRINGFIELD - The massive explosion that rocked Springfield’s entertainment district, leveling a strip club and injuring 21 people, was caused by “human error” on the part of a Columbia Gas of Massachusetts employee, according to Massachusetts Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan. Officials said a block-by-block investigation since Friday’s blast indicates the city’s gas system is safe, intact and functioning properly. On Sunday, the president of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts announced his company would be compensating the hundreds of victims of the explosion because it was a company error that damaged at least 45 buildings in downtown Springfield. The investigation will now focus on the Columbia Gas employee responsible for puncturing a gas line with a tool, and whether proper protocol was followed in the build-up to Friday’s explosion. The blast injured 21 people and prompted a large-scale evacuation of the city’s downtown entertainment district, Coan said. “Human error¦…¦is what the cause of the explosion was,” Coan said Sunday, attributing the origins of the blast to a utility worker who punctured an underground gas line with a metal probing tool. The incident started with a 4 p.m. report of a strong smell of natural detected in the basement of the Scores Gentlemen’s Club , said Columbia Gas President Stephen H. Bryant. The employee, using electronic monitors, found no trace of gas in the basement. He then went outside to see if the smell could be coming from a line leading to the building, Bryant said. “We do not know what the original smell of gas was,” Bryant said. “It is not unusual to get a call. A lot of things smell like gas.” The standard procedure is to use a metal tool to puncture the ground near a pipe to see if there are pockets of gas in the ground. Instead the employee punctured the pipe near the foundation of the club, he said.
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