Crime & Safety
Close Call for Worcester Construction Worker; Cop Jumps to Action
'The contractor was briefly engulfed in flames.' An officer responded quickly to what could have easily been a tragedy Monday morning.
WORCESTER, MA—And here's a good example as to why police detail isn't only necessary sometimes, but life-saving.
On Monday morning, subcontractors were installing a residential gas service line on Mill Street, and discovered a leak in the six-inch main line. A worker in a seven-foot hole was attempting to tack weld an anode onto the main, explains a Worcester police officer. The spark ignited the gas in the hole, and the worker was briefly engulfed in flames.
"I grabbed the fire extinguisher and doused the hole and the worker before any real damage could set in," said the officer, who chose to remain anonymous. "He was pretty lucky."
Eversource arrived to fix the pipe.
"They were explaining that if you held an open flame over the leak opening the pressure from pipe would blow the flame out," he said, "but a spark will ignite the fumes. The gas in those pipes is under extreme pressure. The gas itself is too concentrated to blow but once it mixes with oxygen boom."
