Residents of D Street in South Portland are back in their homes trying to resume their lives and authorities have begun their investigaton following an explosion caused by a buildup of gas that flattened an unoccupied house on the street Monday morning.
After 24 hours without electricity, neighboring houses and businesses got their power and water back Tuesday. However, gas remains turned off until details of the explosion have been determined.
South Portland Fire Chief Kevin Guimond urged residents not to worry.
“There is no hazard now,” Guimond said Tuesday while he addressed residents of D Street gathered outside, adding that officials were “getting the job done.”
Although nobody was injured in the explosion, which occurred around 9:30 a.m., a neighboring office building on the intersection of D Street and Ocean Street, occupied by Volunteers of America, did sustain some damage. The fire escape, which faced the explosion, was destroyed.
Wayne Barter, a nurse for Volunteers of America, said he had just left the building two minutes before the explosion.
“This really makes you think,” Barter said. “I was just on those stairs that basically are not there anymore.”
While the situation was “nervewracking,” said Barter, he is not afraid to return to work.
“I’ve had a lot worse things happen in my life. I’m not a fatalist,” Barter said.
Many residents echo Barter’s sentiment. Steve White, who lives across the street from the site, said he believes the area to be safe.
“I trust it if they say that they have the gas capped,” White said.
Even though residents are getting back to their normal routine, officials are still trying to determine exactly what happened on Monday morning.
Robb Couture, spokesman for the South Portland Fire Department, said a call was made to the department around 8:30 a.m. on Monday because Risbara Construction Co., hired by the Portland Water District to replace a water main on D Street, had scraped a gas line and gas was leaking. Both the fire department and Northern Utilities, the gas company, responded to the call. However, the fire department was almost immediatley dismissed by Northern Utility employees. This was due to the fact that both companies have the same way of measuring gas leaks, and the leak was thought fixed, Couture said.
Standard protocol for assessing gas leaks includes making sure the leak is plugged, and checking the surrounding four houses’ basements to ensure there aren’t abnormal levels of gas, said Couture.
The house that exploded, which was owned by Notis Family Trust at 43 D St., was located on the same side of the street as the leak and one house up.
Sheila Doiron, a spokeswoman for Northern Utilities, said on Tuesday that she is unable to say whether the 43 D St. basement had been tested for gas levels.
“Everything is still under investigation,” Doiron said.
The investigation, which is being conducted by the Fire Marshal’s Office and the South Portland Police Department, is ongoing, said Steve McCausland, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman. It is not known how long the investigation will last, but the goal is to establish what ignited the gas, MacCausland said.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission is conducting its own investigation to determine whether safe digging procedures were followed and whether the gas system itself was in good condition, said Fred Bever, PUC communications director.
Around 9:30 a.m. on Monday, the house that once stood in this location exploded in due to a gas leak. Nobody was injured in the incident, and details of the explosion are currently under investigation.
The explosion of the house on D street damaged a neighboring building, pictured here. The stairwell for the Volunteers for America office was
Send questions/comments to the editors.
