Outrage mounts as questions about cause of gas explosions go unanswered

[TexasTowelie]

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