Lawrence, MA Gas Explosions/Fires - S Lawrence - 9/13/18
I think everyone knows about what happened to a small part of this region on Sept. 13th, but I'm going to include the story I wrote about the incident. This was written, on request by Fire News magazine, from my perspective as both a fire photographer and a victim of the incident. I hope you take the time to read and enjoy it. As for the photos, this is a gallery which includes images from each of the 3 incidents I made it too. It starts at the house explosion on Chickering St and ends with house fires on Jefferson St and Brookfield St.
Thursday afternoon, September 13th 2018 was seemingly shaping up to be a normal, run-of-the-mill afternoon. People out walking, traffic starting to get heavier for the start of the afternoon commute. It was 16:19 hours. As I looked out my window, I saw Andover fire crews pass by my house as they do several times a day but didn’t think much of it. They were heading to Grassfield’s Restaurant on N Main St for a reported fire in the kitchen. It was about that moment I started receiving multiple messages asking if I was listening to Lawrence Fire. “They’re receiving multiple calls for basement fires. Do you know anything?” It didn’t take long to realize this was a very serious incident, of which nobody would be able to predict its magnitude.
As I headed for Lawrence, I started hearing over the buff radio channels about reports of multiple fires in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover. I didn’t know where to go until I heard Lawrence Fire companies radio they had reports of a house explosion with entrapment on Chickering St. I was 5 minutes away. As I pulled up, the street was hazy with a smell of natural gas. Walking in you could see what was a 1.5sty home had been leveled due to a serious explosion. There was glass and shards of wood out into the street and a large portion of the chimney had fallen onto the drivers compartment of an SUV in the driveway. As Firefighters, Police Officers and EMS personnel worked feverishly on top of the car, I realized there was a young man trapped in it. The chimney wouldn’t budge, not even with firefighters using the jaws of life. Additional EMS began arriving to tend to other parties injured in the blast as well as for extra hands around the SUV. After 10-15 minutes, they were able to free the victim, albeit with CPR in progress and he was transported to the Lawrence General Hospital. I was told EMS crews were able to regain pulses, but found out later that he didn’t make it, dying at a Boston Hospital.
As I left, my cell phone rang with a family member alerting me to an evacuation order for Andover and that gas had to be shut off at the meter. I had to leave the city in the midst of a catastrophic incident unfolding in order to protect my own home.
After I shut the gas off, I looked north towards Lawrence and could see multiple columns of smoke. Andover had fires going, North Andover had fires going, Lawrence had fires going, people were visibly shaken outside their homes and traffic was at a near standstill as people evacuated. I left my house and headed back north to Lawrence, but honestly didn’t know where to go.
I made it back into South Lawrence and headed toward a reported house fire on Jefferson St. When I arrived, fire was visible from the area of the front door of a 1.5sty single family dwelling. There were police officers at either end of the street but fire personnel hadn’t arrived yet. They were out straight at other incidents and mutual aid was still making its way into the city. One officer said to me “that’s one of my officer’s home!”. The fire started to consume the home with thicker, heavier smoke pushing from the attic. The first companies to arrive were the Lowell and Haverhill tower’s but an engine was still a few minutes away. Lowell Engine 3 arrived shortly after along with the Salem NH tower. Firefighters ran multiple lines with a concentration on exposures as the main fire building was near fully involved at this point, but were able to knock the heaviest fire down within 30 minutes. As it turns out, the home belonged to a Lawrence police officer, who was on duty at the time. He was made aware of the fire by family and knowing they were safely out of the house, went right back to work helping multiple residents as needed.
As I left Jefferson St, I had no idea what was still active or being reported still. As I drove toward Broadway I saw a column of smoke and followed it to what was an already active firefight on Brookfield St. Fire had traveled thru the walls of a 2 family, 2.5 story dwelling. Companies from Lawrence, West Newbury, Dracut, Methuen and Boston (amongst others) all worked side by side to extinguish the fire as the sound of sirens filled the air from mutual aid units responding to other calls for help. It was mostly knocked down at this point with companies transitioning from a defensive attack to an offensive, interior attack. The guys were tired but began the tedious job of opening up walls and ceilings to chase hot spots.
Now night, I left the scene and met up with a friend and fellow fire photographer on what was now the dark of night as we waited for any additional incidents.
Due to the nature of the incident, not only had the gas been shut off, but the power had to be cut to all of South Lawrence and good portions of both Andover and North Andover. Businesses were closed, houses were in the dark and the only light was from portable lighting plants brought into major intersections. The sound of State Police helicopters filled the air and the sight of State and local Police from throughout the region patrolling the streets was a very eerie feeling. It was like buffing Detroit!
I eventually returned home around 11:30pm when I had the chance to digest what happened in these communities. It was chaos, but it was organized chaos. Why? Because each community has professional public safety personnel which went to work near seamlessly. I’m certain it was tense at times not knowing what was next. Dispatchers were receiving multiple calls, in the hundreds and were tasked with prioritizing the incidents. Fire crews being waved down by homeowners reporting their house was on fire as they were responding to those incidents and all 3 communities needing resources at the same time tested the mutual aid system. But through it all, those dispatchers got help to every call. The local fire crews and their mutual aid partners made it to each of those call and the Chief officers in each community had a handle on what was going on, keeping a sense of calm and organization throughout the incident.
Firefighters, police officers, EMS, support vehicles from the state, rehab units and others from over 70 cities from throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire staged and were ready to go help wherever they needed inside the 3 affected communities. Task forces of personnel stayed at the ready throughout the weekend to help local authorities deal with residual effects of the incident as the region begins what will be a large and time-consuming effort to restore utilities to residents.
At this point, November 19th has been set as the target date to replace nearly 50 miles of damaged gas piping. With the colder months approaching, its my hope that the target date becomes a reality and everyone can soon return to “normal life”.
I’m not only proud of what I saw from our area first responders but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the many area fire photographers who were right there documenting this incident as it unfolded. We stood side by side with the firefighters and in some cases put the cameras down and dug in to help when manpower was stretched thin. I’m certain that most of the more major incidents were covered by somebody who had a camera. It’s something we all take seriously and it’s a passion of ours to get the stories of our local hero’s out there for the public to see. This will be an experience I believe we will all remember for the rest of our lives, I know I will.
Read MoreThursday afternoon, September 13th 2018 was seemingly shaping up to be a normal, run-of-the-mill afternoon. People out walking, traffic starting to get heavier for the start of the afternoon commute. It was 16:19 hours. As I looked out my window, I saw Andover fire crews pass by my house as they do several times a day but didn’t think much of it. They were heading to Grassfield’s Restaurant on N Main St for a reported fire in the kitchen. It was about that moment I started receiving multiple messages asking if I was listening to Lawrence Fire. “They’re receiving multiple calls for basement fires. Do you know anything?” It didn’t take long to realize this was a very serious incident, of which nobody would be able to predict its magnitude.
As I headed for Lawrence, I started hearing over the buff radio channels about reports of multiple fires in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover. I didn’t know where to go until I heard Lawrence Fire companies radio they had reports of a house explosion with entrapment on Chickering St. I was 5 minutes away. As I pulled up, the street was hazy with a smell of natural gas. Walking in you could see what was a 1.5sty home had been leveled due to a serious explosion. There was glass and shards of wood out into the street and a large portion of the chimney had fallen onto the drivers compartment of an SUV in the driveway. As Firefighters, Police Officers and EMS personnel worked feverishly on top of the car, I realized there was a young man trapped in it. The chimney wouldn’t budge, not even with firefighters using the jaws of life. Additional EMS began arriving to tend to other parties injured in the blast as well as for extra hands around the SUV. After 10-15 minutes, they were able to free the victim, albeit with CPR in progress and he was transported to the Lawrence General Hospital. I was told EMS crews were able to regain pulses, but found out later that he didn’t make it, dying at a Boston Hospital.
As I left, my cell phone rang with a family member alerting me to an evacuation order for Andover and that gas had to be shut off at the meter. I had to leave the city in the midst of a catastrophic incident unfolding in order to protect my own home.
After I shut the gas off, I looked north towards Lawrence and could see multiple columns of smoke. Andover had fires going, North Andover had fires going, Lawrence had fires going, people were visibly shaken outside their homes and traffic was at a near standstill as people evacuated. I left my house and headed back north to Lawrence, but honestly didn’t know where to go.
I made it back into South Lawrence and headed toward a reported house fire on Jefferson St. When I arrived, fire was visible from the area of the front door of a 1.5sty single family dwelling. There were police officers at either end of the street but fire personnel hadn’t arrived yet. They were out straight at other incidents and mutual aid was still making its way into the city. One officer said to me “that’s one of my officer’s home!”. The fire started to consume the home with thicker, heavier smoke pushing from the attic. The first companies to arrive were the Lowell and Haverhill tower’s but an engine was still a few minutes away. Lowell Engine 3 arrived shortly after along with the Salem NH tower. Firefighters ran multiple lines with a concentration on exposures as the main fire building was near fully involved at this point, but were able to knock the heaviest fire down within 30 minutes. As it turns out, the home belonged to a Lawrence police officer, who was on duty at the time. He was made aware of the fire by family and knowing they were safely out of the house, went right back to work helping multiple residents as needed.
As I left Jefferson St, I had no idea what was still active or being reported still. As I drove toward Broadway I saw a column of smoke and followed it to what was an already active firefight on Brookfield St. Fire had traveled thru the walls of a 2 family, 2.5 story dwelling. Companies from Lawrence, West Newbury, Dracut, Methuen and Boston (amongst others) all worked side by side to extinguish the fire as the sound of sirens filled the air from mutual aid units responding to other calls for help. It was mostly knocked down at this point with companies transitioning from a defensive attack to an offensive, interior attack. The guys were tired but began the tedious job of opening up walls and ceilings to chase hot spots.
Now night, I left the scene and met up with a friend and fellow fire photographer on what was now the dark of night as we waited for any additional incidents.
Due to the nature of the incident, not only had the gas been shut off, but the power had to be cut to all of South Lawrence and good portions of both Andover and North Andover. Businesses were closed, houses were in the dark and the only light was from portable lighting plants brought into major intersections. The sound of State Police helicopters filled the air and the sight of State and local Police from throughout the region patrolling the streets was a very eerie feeling. It was like buffing Detroit!
I eventually returned home around 11:30pm when I had the chance to digest what happened in these communities. It was chaos, but it was organized chaos. Why? Because each community has professional public safety personnel which went to work near seamlessly. I’m certain it was tense at times not knowing what was next. Dispatchers were receiving multiple calls, in the hundreds and were tasked with prioritizing the incidents. Fire crews being waved down by homeowners reporting their house was on fire as they were responding to those incidents and all 3 communities needing resources at the same time tested the mutual aid system. But through it all, those dispatchers got help to every call. The local fire crews and their mutual aid partners made it to each of those call and the Chief officers in each community had a handle on what was going on, keeping a sense of calm and organization throughout the incident.
Firefighters, police officers, EMS, support vehicles from the state, rehab units and others from over 70 cities from throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire staged and were ready to go help wherever they needed inside the 3 affected communities. Task forces of personnel stayed at the ready throughout the weekend to help local authorities deal with residual effects of the incident as the region begins what will be a large and time-consuming effort to restore utilities to residents.
At this point, November 19th has been set as the target date to replace nearly 50 miles of damaged gas piping. With the colder months approaching, its my hope that the target date becomes a reality and everyone can soon return to “normal life”.
I’m not only proud of what I saw from our area first responders but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the many area fire photographers who were right there documenting this incident as it unfolded. We stood side by side with the firefighters and in some cases put the cameras down and dug in to help when manpower was stretched thin. I’m certain that most of the more major incidents were covered by somebody who had a camera. It’s something we all take seriously and it’s a passion of ours to get the stories of our local hero’s out there for the public to see. This will be an experience I believe we will all remember for the rest of our lives, I know I will.
billnoonanfirefotos
on November 27, 2018good stuff Kevin.....nice to see BFD Ladder 14 (spare) in action and the man on the roof.....again, great work....extractions can be tough and usually are...discretion has to be used...you did...thanks...