Mass., feds hunt for gas blast cause

GILBERT — Police say they have arrested an Arizona man who pretended to have Down syndrome and hired caregivers to bathe him and change his diapers.

According to Gilbert police, 31-year-old Paul Anthony Menchaca posed as a woman on jobsites for caregivers saying she needed assistance with her adult son. Citing court documents, ABC15 reported Thursday that three women were hired to care for Menchaca at different points over the summer, with the first saying she bathed and assisted him 30 times.

Police say all three reported Menchaca becoming aroused during baths.

He was arrested Sept. 6 on fraud and sexual abuse charges.

In a video of an initial court appearance, Menchaca said he has special needs and a low IQ level. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had obtained an attorney.

LAWRENCE, Mass. — Investigators worked Friday to pinpoint the cause of a series of fiery natural gas explosions that killed a teen driver in his car just hours after he got his license, injured at least 25 others and left dozens of homes in smoldering ruins.

Authorities said an estimated 8,000 people were displaced at the height of Thursday’s post-explosion chaos in three towns north of Boston rocked by the disaster. Most were still waiting, shaken and exhausted, to be allowed to return to their homes.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to help investigate the blasts in a state where some of the aging gas pipeline system dates to the 1860s.

Officials are saying it could take weeks before residents of three Massachusetts communities torn by natural gas explosions could have their service fully restored.

Gov. Charlie Baker said Friday that more than 100 gas technicians are being deployed throughout the night and into Saturday to make sure each home is safe to enter. He says no one in the area should turn on their gas unless a crew turns it on for them.

Even after residents return and their electricity is restored, gas service won’t be turned on until technicians can inspect every connection in each home — a process that could take weeks.

Baker says Eversource is bringing in additional resources. Earlier on Friday, Baker authorized the utility to take management control over the effort to safely restore services.

The rapid-fire series of gas explosions that one official described as “Armageddon” ignited fires in 60 to 80 homes in the workingclass towns of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover, forcing entire neighborhoods to evacuate as crews scrambled to fight the flames and shut off the gas and electricity.

Gas and electricity remained shut down Friday in most of the area, and entire neighborhoods were eerily deserted.

Authorities said Leonel Rondon, 18, of Lawrence, died after a chimney toppled by an exploding house crashed into his car. He was rushed to a Boston hospital and pronounced dead Thursday evening.

Rondon, a musician who went by the name DJ Blaze, had just gotten his driver’s license, grieving friends and relatives told The Boston Globe. “It’s crazy how this happened,” said a friend, Cassandra Carrion.

The state Registry of Motor Vehicles said Rondon had been issued his driver’s license only hours earlier Thursday.

Massachusetts State Police urged all residents with homes serviced by Columbia Gas in the three communities to evacuate, snarling traffic and causing widespread confusion as residents and local officials struggled to understand what was happening. Some 400 people spent the night in shelters, and school was canceled Friday as families waited to return to their homes.

Gov. Charlie Baker said state and local authorities were investigating but it could take days or weeks before they turn up answers, acknowledging the “massive inconvenience” for those displaced by the explosions. He said hundreds of gas technicians were going house-to-house to ensure each was safe, and declared a state of emergency for the affected area so the state could take over recovery efforts.

The three communities house more than 146,000 residents about 26 miles north of Boston, near the New Hampshire border. Lawrence, the largest, is a majority Latino city with a population of about 80,000.

Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera reassured immigrants who might not be living in his city legally that they had nothing to fear.