Articles Posted in FIre and Explosions

Our Boston Personal Injury Attorneys previously blogged about a natural gas explosion at Scores Gentlemen’s Club that injured 18 people and damaged 42 buildings in Springfield’s entertainment district.

Now, authorities appear to have identified the cause. State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said the blast was due to a “human error” that occurred when an unnamed utility worker accidentally punctured a high-pressure pipeline while looking for a leak.

The worker pierced the gas line while using a metal probe to search for a leak, said Coan. Gas then filled the strip club, with a spark of some kind igniting the blast. “Unfortunately when he put the probe in the ground he punctured and penetrated the gas main itself. That allowed a high volume off free flowing gas to enter the building,” Coan said.

The worker was following older markings on a sidewalk that located the position of the gas line, but the markings were incorrect, Coan said. “Some old markings that were in the street from some previous work that had been done were not exactly where they should have been and were off a couple of feet. So while the employee thought he was a safe distance from the gas line, in fact he was directly on top of it,” Coan said.

The explosion damaged 115 residential units located in 42 buildings. Officials condemned three of those buildings immediately, and indicated that 24 others need structural inspections by engineers to assess their safety. The blast completely destroyed the gentlemen’s club. Most of the people hurt in the blast were gas workers, firefighters, and police.

Authorities had evacuated several buildings in the area after the pipe was damaged. Springfield Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant commended the department’s firefighters, saying they “did an excellent job evacuating the area which certainly prevented additional civilian injuries and saved many lives.”
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The firework company Pyrotecnico has been suspended from operating in Massachusetts by State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan until July 4, 2013. The suspension occurred following the events of last July 4th, in which Pyrotecnico left unexploded firework shells in parks and playgrounds in the towns of Ayer, Hingham, Marion, Milford, Newton, Westford, Wilmington, Winchester, and Sharon.

The unexploded shells could potentially have been harmful to any passersby, many of whom were children. As this blog reported back in July, the shells were initially discovered after the company’s July 3 show in Stoughton, when a maintenance worker mowing a field accidentally set off one of the shells. Luckily, due to the swift actions of police officers who searched sites statewide and removed any shells that were discovered, no one was seriously injured. Coan explained that a child playing or even a town worker maintaining the premises could accidentally stumble upon the shell and become injured if it were to detonate. Coan called this “unacceptable.”
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This past Saturday, September 8, 2012, a 31 year old man from Danvers, Massachusetts survived a devastating incident that had initially mystified authorities. Karl Marchionda had just finished loading ten gallons of fuel into his Sea Doo GTX 155 personal watercraft. While alone in the craft at Long Lake Marina on Long Lake in Naples of western Maine, at around 4:50pm, he attempted to start the engine. The PWC then exploded. Karl was launched twenty feet into the air, crashing face first into the dock, according to witnesses. Parts of the craft, including the cover to the engine, coasted through the air for sixty feet.

According to the District Game Warden, Neal Wykes, sparks ignited vapors in the hull of the vessel when Marchionda attempted to activate the engine. There was no immediate determination of what caused the explosion. But after further review, Wykes ascertained that a mechanism that secured the fuel lines to the gas tank had become loose. This allowed fuel to enter the hull of the watercraft. Apparently the gas fumes were ignited when the engine started. Fortunately the blaze was quickly extinguished by the marina’s owner, James Davenport.

For Marchionda, though his injuries weren’t threatening to his life, and he was conscious and responsive when Wykes arrived, he had no recollection of the explosion or of being thrown through the air and landing on the dock. The Massachusetts resident was eventually taken to Bridgton Hospital with several broken ribs, two fractured vertebrae, abrasions, and lacerations to the face. The authorities from the Cumberland County Sherriff’s Office and rescuers from Naples Fire and Rescue are presently still investigating the incident.
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