FIRES, EXPLOSIONS STUN MERRIMACK COMMUNITIES
18-year-old killed, electricity shut off
Dozens of suspected gas explosions that leveled some houses and set others ablaze killed one person and forced thousands to evacuate in a mileswide swath of Lawrence, North Andover and Andover late yesterday — then left police with a massive area to secure as power cuts threw the city into darkness.
“It looked like Armageddon,” said Andover fire Chief Michael Mansfield. “There were billows of smoke coming from Lawrence behind me and I could see plumes of smoke in front of me within the town of Andover. It just looked like a war zone.”
State police reported as many as 70 fires and suspected gas explosions in the three Merrimack Valley communities, starting just after 5 p.m. Fire crews and police streamed in from dozens of communities as far away as Boston and Hampton, N.H.
Leonel Rondon, 18, of Lawrence was pronounced dead last night at Massachusetts General Hospital, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office said. Rondon was in a vehicle outside a home on Chickering Road when a chimney from a house explosion fell on the vehicle, Blodgett’s office said.
After the explosions officials urged caution.
“If you smell gas, you gotta get out of your home,” Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera told his city early on.
“We’re really scared,” North Andover resident Selena Calixto said as she prepared to evacuate. “Right now I’m going to grab my elderly grandmother and make sure she’s OK.”
Methuen police Chief Joseph Solomon, who responded to Lawrence with his officers, said with smoke from so many fires, “you can’t even see the sky.”
The entire area reeked of smoke, which in some parts of south Lawrence was so thick it became difficult to breathe. People were holding shirts over their mouths and wearing masks as they stood outside, staring in awe of the multiple fires.
At the height of the crisis, police cruisers, fire trucks and ambulances raced through the streets in all directions with their sirens blaring.
Police announced at 7 p.m. that electricity in each of the three communities was being shut off to prevent any more fires as gas lines in the area were being depressured. Authorities had no immediate word on what caused the blasts.
State police said in a tweet, “numerous evacuations of neighborhoods where there are gas odors are underway. Far too early to speculate on cause. Joint investigation will be conducted when situation is stabilized.”
Columbia Gas, which serves the area, said crews were responding but offered no explanation for the blasts in its statement.
Gov. Charlie Baker said state police were assisting local police, flooding the darkened streets with officers to prevent any outbreak of crime after the power had been cut to prevent any more gas explosions.
“This is still very much an active scene,” Baker said, as firefighters continued to mop up, and investigators and gas workers fanned out.
Lawrence General Hospital earlier reported 10 casualties — at least two of them in critical condition. Another 10 were treated at Holy Family Hospital.
Despite the widespread nature of the crisis, some fires appeared to be quickly contained and people remained mostly calm — despite the uncertainty about what was happening or what the thousands of driven-out and often stunned residents would do next.
South Lawrence residents were told to head north to Parthum Elementary School and the Arlington Middle School. Andover residents were evacuating to their town’s senior center on Whittier Court and North Andover evacuated to their town’s
middle school.
After darkness fell, East Kingston, N.H., fire Chief Ed Warren and his crew were going around to houses, helping North Andover residents turn off their gas.
“Just in case,” Warren said. He spoke with residents about the “major incident” that remained ongoing in that town as well as Lawrence, Andover and Methuen, shaking hands and asking if folks needed any other help.
The FBI sent special agents into the area “assessing the situation and coordinating with our state, local and federal partners,” said spokeswoman Kristin Setera.