Utility to pay $53 million for blasts that damaged homes, killed one.

BOSTON» A utility company will pay the largest criminal fine ever imposed for breaking a federal pipeline safety law — $53 million — and plead guilty to causing a series of natural gas explosions in Massachusetts that killed one person and damaged dozens of homes, federal officials said Wednesday.

Columbia Gas of Massachusetts has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Pipeline Safety Act and pay the fine to resolve a federal investigation into the explosions that rocked three communities in the Merrimack Valley, north of Boston, in September 2018.

“Today’s settlement is a sobering reminder that if you decide to put profits before public safety, you will pay the consequences,” FBI Agent Joseph Bonavolonta said.