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TexasTowelie

(118,904 posts)
Sat Sep 15, 2018, 05:08 AM Sep 2018

Outrage mounts as questions about cause of gas explosions go unanswered

LAWRENCE — With frustration mounting across the Merrimack Valley, Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency Friday and called in another utility to handle the response to the series of gas explosions and fires that killed one and displaced thousands a day earlier.

Baker, facing growing outrage from the residents of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, criticized how Columbia Gas, the utility that provided gas to the dozens of destroyed homes, had responded to the disaster and placed Eversource in charge.

“We believe that will make a big difference with respect to the relationship between what gets told to us and to what actually happens on the ground, and the representations that are made to people in these three communities, so we can do everything we can to ensure their homes and communities are safe,” Baker said at a press conference.

Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera put it more bluntly.

“Since yesterday — since yesterday — when we first got word of this incident, the least informed and the last to act has been Columbia Gas,” Rivera said, standing next to the governor. Columbia Gas was given a chance to respond to the fires, “and they spent it and wasted it.”

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/09/14/outrage-mounts-questions-about-cause-gas-explosions-unanswered/9inzfjJ72YYOCIH6CakaPP/story.html

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Outrage mounts as questions about cause of gas explosions go unanswered (Original Post) TexasTowelie Sep 2018 OP
Columbia Gas, ... said it was upgrading equipment in the area when the explosions and fires erupted. PoliticAverse Sep 2018 #1
Was this another russian putin cyber attack? duforsure Sep 2018 #2
The gas company announced that they were going to de-pressurize the gas lines lapfog_1 Sep 2018 #3

PoliticAverse

(26,366 posts)
1. Columbia Gas, ... said it was upgrading equipment in the area when the explosions and fires erupted.
Sat Sep 15, 2018, 05:17 AM
Sep 2018

Did someone mis-install a pressure regulator?

From 1992 in Illinois:
http://www.gendisasters.com/illinois/23245/chicago-il-natural-gas-surge-explosions-jan-1992

Chicago (AP) - Explosions caused by a natural gas surge ignited 10 fires that destroyed or damaged 18 buildings Friday, authorities said.
One person was killed, two others were reported missing and five were injured, one critically.
"Buildings are burning all around us," witness Sam LaRoussa said shortly after the explosions. He said he saw five buildings explode or burst into flames near his office.

duforsure

(11,885 posts)
2. Was this another russian putin cyber attack?
Sat Sep 15, 2018, 05:34 AM
Sep 2018

And trump knows ? The reports they've been involved in getting into our systems could make this a possibility , and if trump knew they were doing this he's complicit, or for protecting them now, he's complicit. A terrorist attack on our systems like this with a president part of it being involved with terrorist also makes him a terrorist if we learn later he was complicit. That would also mean he could be held according to the laws they passed against terrorist. That wouldn't be that hard to determine quickly if controls were manipulated remotely , and who did it. They are still attacking us and the complicit president is refusing to do anything to prevent it. If this was putin s handy work here , trump is in really deep trouble .

lapfog_1

(30,559 posts)
3. The gas company announced that they were going to de-pressurize the gas lines
Sat Sep 15, 2018, 06:03 AM
Sep 2018

for maintenance.

However that was to be in a few days, not at the time of the accident.

I don't believe in coincidence. Either someone screwed up at the gas company... or they had a software / hardware bug, or a cyber attack that took advantage of the announcement in order to hide the attack in the confusion.

I wonder if someone shorted the gas company stock last week?

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