Listen To Fire Fighters As Explosions Started: 'This Is Crazy'

LAWRENCE, MA -- As the 27-minute recording plays, the dispatcher's voice never wavers. More and more calls of fires come into the Lawrence Fire Department, and the dispatcher does his best to direct crews to the scenes while issuing mutual aid calls. Within minutes, it becomes apparent that the fires are related.

"These are all coming in as reported basement fires," the dispatcher says. "I have something going on here with over-pressurization."

Fire fighters call in with reports of their efforts to turn off gas lines. Fire fighters warn each other to shut the gas off before attempting to enter any building. As soon as one fire is knocked down, they're directed to another. Finally, the dispatcher gives in. "This is crazy," he says.

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Listen to the full recording of the Lawrence Fire Department scanner in the first minutes of Thursday's gas explosions, which destroyed or damaged more than 60 homes in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover, injured more than two dozen people and left an 18-year-old Lawrence man dead:

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Top: The house on Chickering Road in Lawrence where 18-year-old Leonel Rondon was killed on Friday. Rondon was sitting in the car parked in the driveway when a gas explosion destroyed the house and toppled the chimney onto the car. Photo by Dave Copeland/Patch.

Recording by mental_boost/YouTube.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).