6 ms·

This is playing nonstop on all local news channels in the Boston area, and the footage is terrifying. One house just blew up, and then residents across a wide a

This is playing nonstop on all local news channels in the Boston area, and the footage is terrifying. One house just blew up, and then residents across a wide area said they heard hissing in their home and fires broke out in 70 of them. A news helicopter circled one of them for 40 minutes before firefighters could reach it, there were just too many other fires and not enough local resources. One of the towns (Andover or North Andover) had 38 fires in all, including 18 burning at one time. They have a good "mutual aid" system here and fire apparatus from the neighboring communities including New Hampshire and all over the Boston area eventually flooded in to these three cities (Lawrence, Andover, North Andover) to help. Someone mentioned there have been incidents like this before in Lexington, Mass. The news also mentioned another incident in Danvers more than 10 years ago but that wasn't natural gas, it was improperly stored chemicals: http://archive.boston.com/news/specials/local/danvers_explosion/ http://archive.boston.com/news/specials/local/danvers_explos... ETA: An 18 year old died - he was sitting in a car in a driveway next to the house that exploded, and a chimney fell on the vehicle.

freerobby 8y ago
Andover resident here. The local response has been super impressive. I've never seen so many emergency response vehicles and personnel mobilized so quickly from so many different places. We drove north to New Hampshire on instinct as soon as we had a sense of what was happening (about an hour before the formal evacuation), and saw police and firetrucks heading south the entire way. After dinner, on our way back south (not home, but to another place to stay tonight), all the highway exits in the affected areas were closed, with police at each exit offering guidance to drivers who weren't sure what to do or where to go. The affected communities are suburban -- not in the boonies, but not urban either, and definitely not used to having to respond so urgently to a widespread problem like this. They appear to have been very well trained and ready for it.
- karmelapple 8y ago
  This is heartwarming to hear, and not surprising from my experience. Although people are great at minding their own matters in the greater Boston metro and beyond in non-crisis situations, when folks need help, this is a great place to get that help.
  - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
    >Although people are great at minding their own matters in the greater Boston metro and beyond No. They are very much are not. Massachusetts people are busybodies compared to people farther north. They very much care about things that others do that don't effect them. It's been this way since Boston was founded in the 1600s and it's deeply ingrained in the culture. I didn't notice it until I lived in northern New England for awhile.
    - emodendroket 8y ago
      What he means, I assume, is that Massachusetts people are very "cold" compared to people in the South or on the West Coast in the sense that strangers are very unlikely to greet you or chat you up. It always weirds me out when people start doing that but visitors to this area complain about the opposite.
      - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
        I'll agree with that. Nobody will talk to you on the subway. Everybody will be very interested on whether your replacement garage door "fits the character of the neighborhood" though. If your kid gets off the bus and lets themselves into the house before you show up from work you are going to get really familiar with the local cops. My favorite two anecdotes: I once drove ~1/2mi home after getting a flat (in the tires' defense, it was older than me), mid-morning on a weekday. Less than 5min later, while I was in the middle of "screw these used pieces of shit, I'm ordering all new Firestones on Amazon" the cops, knocked on my door. Turns out someone had followed me home and then called me in to the cops as a possible drunk driver, on a weekday morning. And the cops were happy to oblige. They had no problem showing up and playing the questions game with me over a call they would have ignored in NH or ME. Back when I was in middle school (decades ago) my parents got lectured by the school about how they were raising me because I kept getting in trouble for using pads of sticky notes to make short animations of car crashes, explosions, and other typical action movie stuff. If those aren't hallmarks of a society that think's it's perfectly fine to get unnecessarily involved in someone else's problems then I don't know what is.
- 616c 8y ago
  I know someone from the area and she says the impression is Columbia Gas willfully ignored the situation in Lawrence, the poorer of the suburbs, than Andover and the more affluent adjacent towns. Accurate assessment?
rough-sea 8y ago
The CSB does great videos after big investigations. They did one on Davers that is worth watching: https://youtu.be/eYN9WivpQ6M https://youtu.be/eYN9WivpQ6M
- dmix 8y ago
  I love that youtube channel. I remember coming across a random video once on Youtube then spending a couple hrs over the next week watching them.
emodendroket 8y ago
It's an absolute nightmare scenario. You can be doing everything right and, whoops, your house just gets blown up out of nowhere.
- erjjones 8y ago
  Does anyone know how you could go about installing your own regulator at your house on your gas line? Would it even be able to mitigate something like this? Curious..
  - jacquesm 8y ago
    You already have 'your own' regulator. And it will be as good or better than anything that you are likely to install yourself. Also, having two regulators in series will kill your flow, they need a delta to work with.
  - jhayward 8y ago
    You would need a overpressure relief valve, not a regulator. And it's not clear to me what you would do with the overpressure except either (a) block it to protect internal systems, leaving the externals to fend for themselves, or (b) flare it off via a rooftop vent system, which would be quite hazardous and unwieldy to maintain.
    - sleepybrett 8y ago
      but who doesn't want a flamethrower mounted to their roof?
- gammateam 8y ago
  > You can be doing everything right and, whoops, your house just gets blown up out of nowhere. Yes, but this idea of "right" and insulation or exemption from problems is derived from a protestant belief system which is a major part of American culture. Although the concept can be helpful in navigating life, it is totally unrelated to reality. I think recognizing how this notion came to be can help with the cognitive dissonance and move you closer to acceptance.
ataturk 8y ago
All I am going to say is: When those two idiots set off those pressure cooker bombs at the marathon, there was no lack of cops to form an army to shut down the entire city for nearly three days! Screw off, Boston!

freerobby 8y ago

Andover resident here. The local response has been super impressive. I've never seen so many emergency response vehicles and personnel mobilized so quickly from so many different places. We drove north to New Hampshire on instinct as soon as we had a sense of what was happening (about an hour before the formal evacuation), and saw police and firetrucks heading south the entire way. After dinner, on our way back south (not home, but to another place to stay tonight), all the highway exits in the affected areas were closed, with police at each exit offering guidance to drivers who weren't sure what to do or where to go. The affected communities are suburban -- not in the boonies, but not urban either, and definitely not used to having to respond so urgently to a widespread problem like this. They appear to have been very well trained and ready for it.

karmelapple 8y ago
This is heartwarming to hear, and not surprising from my experience. Although people are great at minding their own matters in the greater Boston metro and beyond in non-crisis situations, when folks need help, this is a great place to get that help.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  >Although people are great at minding their own matters in the greater Boston metro and beyond No. They are very much are not. Massachusetts people are busybodies compared to people farther north. They very much care about things that others do that don't effect them. It's been this way since Boston was founded in the 1600s and it's deeply ingrained in the culture. I didn't notice it until I lived in northern New England for awhile.
  - emodendroket 8y ago
    What he means, I assume, is that Massachusetts people are very "cold" compared to people in the South or on the West Coast in the sense that strangers are very unlikely to greet you or chat you up. It always weirds me out when people start doing that but visitors to this area complain about the opposite.
    - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
      I'll agree with that. Nobody will talk to you on the subway. Everybody will be very interested on whether your replacement garage door "fits the character of the neighborhood" though. If your kid gets off the bus and lets themselves into the house before you show up from work you are going to get really familiar with the local cops. My favorite two anecdotes: I once drove ~1/2mi home after getting a flat (in the tires' defense, it was older than me), mid-morning on a weekday. Less than 5min later, while I was in the middle of "screw these used pieces of shit, I'm ordering all new Firestones on Amazon" the cops, knocked on my door. Turns out someone had followed me home and then called me in to the cops as a possible drunk driver, on a weekday morning. And the cops were happy to oblige. They had no problem showing up and playing the questions game with me over a call they would have ignored in NH or ME. Back when I was in middle school (decades ago) my parents got lectured by the school about how they were raising me because I kept getting in trouble for using pads of sticky notes to make short animations of car crashes, explosions, and other typical action movie stuff. If those aren't hallmarks of a society that think's it's perfectly fine to get unnecessarily involved in someone else's problems then I don't know what is.
616c 8y ago
I know someone from the area and she says the impression is Columbia Gas willfully ignored the situation in Lawrence, the poorer of the suburbs, than Andover and the more affluent adjacent towns. Accurate assessment?

rough-sea 8y ago

The CSB does great videos after big investigations. They did one on Davers that is worth watching: https://youtu.be/eYN9WivpQ6M https://youtu.be/eYN9WivpQ6M

dmix 8y ago
I love that youtube channel. I remember coming across a random video once on Youtube then spending a couple hrs over the next week watching them.

emodendroket 8y ago

It's an absolute nightmare scenario. You can be doing everything right and, whoops, your house just gets blown up out of nowhere.

erjjones 8y ago
Does anyone know how you could go about installing your own regulator at your house on your gas line? Would it even be able to mitigate something like this? Curious..
- jacquesm 8y ago
  You already have 'your own' regulator. And it will be as good or better than anything that you are likely to install yourself. Also, having two regulators in series will kill your flow, they need a delta to work with.
- jhayward 8y ago
  You would need a overpressure relief valve, not a regulator. And it's not clear to me what you would do with the overpressure except either (a) block it to protect internal systems, leaving the externals to fend for themselves, or (b) flare it off via a rooftop vent system, which would be quite hazardous and unwieldy to maintain.
  - sleepybrett 8y ago
    but who doesn't want a flamethrower mounted to their roof?
gammateam 8y ago
> You can be doing everything right and, whoops, your house just gets blown up out of nowhere. Yes, but this idea of "right" and insulation or exemption from problems is derived from a protestant belief system which is a major part of American culture. Although the concept can be helpful in navigating life, it is totally unrelated to reality. I think recognizing how this notion came to be can help with the cognitive dissonance and move you closer to acceptance.

ataturk 8y ago

All I am going to say is: When those two idiots set off those pressure cooker bombs at the marathon, there was no lack of cops to form an army to shut down the entire city for nearly three days! Screw off, Boston!