Report: Columbia OK'd Work That Led To Explosions

ANDOVER, MA -- Columbia Gas waited 26 minutes to shut down a gas regulator after an alarm sounded in its Columbus, Ohio, operations, according to a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report released Thursday, the first official look at the Sept. 13 gas explosions that killed one and damaged or destroyed 131 buildings in Andover, North Andover and Lawrence.

According to the report, high-pressure natural gas was released into a low-pressure transmission lines. The report sets the total number of buildings damaged in the explosions at 131, far higher than previous estimates. Of those, at least five were completely destroyed, the report said. In most cases, the homes were damaged with fires started in gas appliances.

A spokesperson for Columbia Gas and its parent company, NiSource, was not immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon.

In addition to the death of 18-year-old Leonel Rondon of Lawrence, 21 people -- including two firefighters -- were taken to hospitals on the day of the explosions. Seven other firefighters sustained minor injuries.

The report said a crew working earlier in the day near the intersection of South Union and Salem Streets in Lawrence was replacing an older, low-pressure cast-iron gas pipe that had been installed in the early 1900s with a new plastic line. The regulators that should have sensed the increased pressure remained on the older, abandoned line. As the pressure dropped in that line, the regulators increased pressure to the new line.

"Since the regulators no longer sensed system pressure, they fully opened, allowing the full flow of high-pressure gas to be released into the distribution system supplying the neighborhood, exceeding the maximum allowable pressure," the report said.

The contractor working on the project, Feeney Brothers of Dorchester, previously said it acted properly on the day of the explosions and that it followed the work orders it had been given by Columbia. The company and the NTSB report both noted that a Columbia Gas inspector was on scene while the work was being done.

That assertion was confirmed in the report released Thursday.

"Columbia Gas developed and approved the work package executed on the day of the accident," the report said. 'The work package did not account for the location of the sensing lines or require their relocation to ensure the regulators were sensing actual system pressure. The work was performed in accordance with steps laid out in the work package. In light of this accident, Columbia Gas implemented a safety stand-down for all employees who perform work related to low-pressure natural gas systems for NiSource subsidiaries."

The report also establishes a timeline of the events on that Thursday afternoon. At 4:04 and 4:05, alarms warning of over-pressurization in Lawrence gas lines sounded in Columbia Gas's control center. The center did not have the ability to turn off the alarm; at 4:06 a worker at the control center in Ohio called Columbia Gas officials at Lawrence.

At 4:11 pm, the first 9-1-1 call was placed.

"Columbia Gas shut down the regulator at issue by about 4:30 p.m. The critical valves of the involved natural gas distribution system were closed by 7:24 p.m.," the report continued. "Beginning about midnight, crews consisting of two Columbia Gas technicians escorted by two emergency response personnel began shutting off the meters at each house to isolate the homes from the natural gas distribution system. All meters were shut off by the following morning."

The investigation is ongoing. NTSB said it will look at coordination between Columbia Gas and local emergency response personnel, as well as a more detailed look at the work package Columbia Gas developed for the line replacement work in Lawrence.

"This is a factual report; any analysis, findings, recommendations, or probable cause determinations related to this incident will be issued by the Board at a later date," North Andover Town Manager said in a statement.

The release of the report brought an immediate reaction from elected officials. Sen. Edward Markey, who has called for a Congressional hearing on the disaster, issued a statement within a hour of the report's release.

"The release of the preliminary report raises more questions than answers about how the Merrimack Valley disaster occurred, and I will not stop until we get each and every answer," Markey said. "We need to turn over every stone and shine a light on the workings of this company and the entire industry, so that people can both trust that their gas system is safe and verify that nothing like this will ever happen again. The fate of families and small businesses depends on it."

Read the full NTSB preliminary report. Never miss another local news story: Get free local news alerts right to your inbox.

Top: The house on Chickering Road in Lawrence where 18-year-old Leonel Rondon was killed on Sept. 13. 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.

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