sprayandpray
May 20th, 2008, 12:37 PM
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McKinney explosion witnesses, victims' families criticize Atmos Energy's response
01:23 AM CDT on Sunday, May 18, 2008
By MATTHEW HAAG and KEVIN KRAUSE / The Dallas Morning News
mhaag@dallasnews.com; kkrause@dallasnews.com
Nancy Foster lay Saturday evening in an intensive care unit hospital bed. Her eyes were swollen and seared shut, and her hair was singed to her scalp. More than half of her body was burned.
CHERYL DIAZ MEYER/DMN
Charred ruins were all that was left of Nancy Foster's house, garage and car on Fenet Street in McKinney on Saturday, a day after a gas line rupture set off explosions that destroyed two homes.
View larger More photos Photo store Her family says the gas explosion that injured the 77-year-old woman so badly could have been avoided.
"Why didn't they get everyone out? They should have evacuated the area," Marilyn Hicks, Ms. Foster's daughter, said as she stood outside her crumbled childhood home in the 600 block of Fenet Street in McKinney. "It's just devastating to see something like this."
Ms. Hicks said the subcontractors who were boring underground about 15 yards from Ms. Foster's house and hit a natural gas pipe should have alerted Ms. Foster and other victims to leave the area before the homes exploded Friday.
Atmos Energy, which subcontracted the work to M.J. Sheridan of Texas, Inc., responded to the gas leak promptly, said company spokesman Rand LaVonn.
"I'm confident that we have the records to demonstrate we got here as fast as we could," Mr. LaVonn said. The company on Saturday couldn't provide a detailed timeline of the response, other than to say that a nearby service technician arrived five minutes before the first house exploded around 5:43 p.m.
The service technician immediately started lifting sewer manholes to let the gas vent, Mr. LaVonn said.
Daniel Brown, president of M.J. Sheridan, said he hadn't had a chance to meet with the company's lawyers and couldn't discuss the explosions.
"I don't have any comment, sorry," Mr. Brown said Saturday afternoon.
After workers hit the gas line Friday, natural gas seeped into the sewer pipes and traveled into homes along Fenet Street, McKinney Fire Chief Mark Wallace said.
KYLE ALCOTT/DMN Staff Artist The first home to explode was Raul Moreno's, which was reduced to a blackened rubble. Seconds later, neighbors said, Ms. Foster's home exploded, knocking down the home's walls and pushing them off its foundation. The force bent the home's metal front door.
Mr. Moreno, Ms. Foster and Arthur Bryson, who was in the house with Ms. Foster, were taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Ms. Foster and Mr. Bryson were listed in critical condition late Saturday; Mr. Moreno was listed in serious condition.
Outside Parkland's burn unit Saturday afternoon, Sharon Foster, 56, and other family members waited anxiously for updates on her mother's condition.
"This is the crucial time. Because of her age," she said.
Her mother was conscious Saturday, she said, but couldn't speak because of the breathing tube down her throat. However, she could understand her and was able to nod her head, she said. Her mother's face was swollen and her head heavily bandaged. She suffered serious burns on her arms, face and back.
Ms. Foster has lived in the house since the 1950s, her daughter said. She said she and her brother and sister grew up in the house. Their old home was a total loss, she said. No valuables or personal items were salvaged.
She said she believes her mother will pull through because she is a cancer survivor who also has made it through brain surgery.
"She's a tough old bird," she said. "She's a fighter."
Ms. Foster said she and her siblings are angry that the gas was not shut off while M.J. Sheridan was digging near gas lines. She also said that, as of Saturday afternoon, no one from Atmos has contacted any family members about the incident.
She said the family wants answers.
"I would like for them to explain to me why was that gas not shut off before they started to replace that pipe," she said. "How can you replace it without shutting off the gas? It just doesn't make sense."
When people began reporting the strong odor of gas, the gas lines should have been shut off immediately and the neighborhood should have been evacuated, she said.
"They are responsible," she said about the gas company. "And don't be passing it on to the contractor."
Neighbor Robert Wiggins and others said the area reeked of the strong gas odor for at least 40 minutes before Atmos employees or the Fire Department arrived.
M.J. Sheridan was fined $5,000 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after being cited in 2005 for three serious violations out of the company's Houston office, according to records obtained from the federal agency's Web site.
The violations were connected with two OSHA standards: requirements for protective systems and specific excavation requirements, records show. The company also was cited for violating safety training and education requirements, but no fine was issued for that citation, records show.
Additional details of the safety violations were not available Saturday.
Latonia Dashield, a teacher at Holy Family School, which sits across the street from the explosion site, said she stepped outside the school around 4:45 p.m. Friday to the potent smell of natural gas.
"It was major gas. It just hit you in the face like a heat wave," Ms. Dashield said. She said she sensed an explosion was imminent, so she quickly drove off with her children.
Mr. Bryson had the same concerns, Ms. Hicks said.
She said he told her Friday night at the hospital that he asked the workers whether it was safe for him to be in the area, she said.
"They told him it was OK, so he returned inside," Ms. Hicks said.
Moments later, Mr. Moreno's house exploded, and Ms. Foster's house blew up seconds after.
As firefighters arrived around 5:50 p.m., the triplex closest to the gas leak exploded, Chief Wallace said. No one was inside at that time.
Ms. Foster's 1,000-square-foot home lay in a pile of twisted and charred wood Saturday. Her home's garage fell on her white Oldsmobile car, crushing the car.
"How could they let my mom stay in the house?" Ms. Hicks said.
Family members last saw Ms. Foster on Sunday, when they came over to celebrate Mother's Day. Before they ate dinner, Ms. Foster said a prayer for her family.
"Have us stay tight and close together," grandson Warrens Owens said she told the family. "She loved her family."
The pictures didn't come thru but believe me , these houses were levelled.
A representative for Atmos said that the ruptured line had been located(by UtiliQuest) prior to the boring.
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Yahoo! Buzz
McKinney explosion witnesses, victims' families criticize Atmos Energy's response
01:23 AM CDT on Sunday, May 18, 2008
By MATTHEW HAAG and KEVIN KRAUSE / The Dallas Morning News
mhaag@dallasnews.com; kkrause@dallasnews.com
Nancy Foster lay Saturday evening in an intensive care unit hospital bed. Her eyes were swollen and seared shut, and her hair was singed to her scalp. More than half of her body was burned.
CHERYL DIAZ MEYER/DMN
Charred ruins were all that was left of Nancy Foster's house, garage and car on Fenet Street in McKinney on Saturday, a day after a gas line rupture set off explosions that destroyed two homes.
View larger More photos Photo store Her family says the gas explosion that injured the 77-year-old woman so badly could have been avoided.
"Why didn't they get everyone out? They should have evacuated the area," Marilyn Hicks, Ms. Foster's daughter, said as she stood outside her crumbled childhood home in the 600 block of Fenet Street in McKinney. "It's just devastating to see something like this."
Ms. Hicks said the subcontractors who were boring underground about 15 yards from Ms. Foster's house and hit a natural gas pipe should have alerted Ms. Foster and other victims to leave the area before the homes exploded Friday.
Atmos Energy, which subcontracted the work to M.J. Sheridan of Texas, Inc., responded to the gas leak promptly, said company spokesman Rand LaVonn.
"I'm confident that we have the records to demonstrate we got here as fast as we could," Mr. LaVonn said. The company on Saturday couldn't provide a detailed timeline of the response, other than to say that a nearby service technician arrived five minutes before the first house exploded around 5:43 p.m.
The service technician immediately started lifting sewer manholes to let the gas vent, Mr. LaVonn said.
Daniel Brown, president of M.J. Sheridan, said he hadn't had a chance to meet with the company's lawyers and couldn't discuss the explosions.
"I don't have any comment, sorry," Mr. Brown said Saturday afternoon.
After workers hit the gas line Friday, natural gas seeped into the sewer pipes and traveled into homes along Fenet Street, McKinney Fire Chief Mark Wallace said.
KYLE ALCOTT/DMN Staff Artist The first home to explode was Raul Moreno's, which was reduced to a blackened rubble. Seconds later, neighbors said, Ms. Foster's home exploded, knocking down the home's walls and pushing them off its foundation. The force bent the home's metal front door.
Mr. Moreno, Ms. Foster and Arthur Bryson, who was in the house with Ms. Foster, were taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Ms. Foster and Mr. Bryson were listed in critical condition late Saturday; Mr. Moreno was listed in serious condition.
Outside Parkland's burn unit Saturday afternoon, Sharon Foster, 56, and other family members waited anxiously for updates on her mother's condition.
"This is the crucial time. Because of her age," she said.
Her mother was conscious Saturday, she said, but couldn't speak because of the breathing tube down her throat. However, she could understand her and was able to nod her head, she said. Her mother's face was swollen and her head heavily bandaged. She suffered serious burns on her arms, face and back.
Ms. Foster has lived in the house since the 1950s, her daughter said. She said she and her brother and sister grew up in the house. Their old home was a total loss, she said. No valuables or personal items were salvaged.
She said she believes her mother will pull through because she is a cancer survivor who also has made it through brain surgery.
"She's a tough old bird," she said. "She's a fighter."
Ms. Foster said she and her siblings are angry that the gas was not shut off while M.J. Sheridan was digging near gas lines. She also said that, as of Saturday afternoon, no one from Atmos has contacted any family members about the incident.
She said the family wants answers.
"I would like for them to explain to me why was that gas not shut off before they started to replace that pipe," she said. "How can you replace it without shutting off the gas? It just doesn't make sense."
When people began reporting the strong odor of gas, the gas lines should have been shut off immediately and the neighborhood should have been evacuated, she said.
"They are responsible," she said about the gas company. "And don't be passing it on to the contractor."
Neighbor Robert Wiggins and others said the area reeked of the strong gas odor for at least 40 minutes before Atmos employees or the Fire Department arrived.
M.J. Sheridan was fined $5,000 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after being cited in 2005 for three serious violations out of the company's Houston office, according to records obtained from the federal agency's Web site.
The violations were connected with two OSHA standards: requirements for protective systems and specific excavation requirements, records show. The company also was cited for violating safety training and education requirements, but no fine was issued for that citation, records show.
Additional details of the safety violations were not available Saturday.
Latonia Dashield, a teacher at Holy Family School, which sits across the street from the explosion site, said she stepped outside the school around 4:45 p.m. Friday to the potent smell of natural gas.
"It was major gas. It just hit you in the face like a heat wave," Ms. Dashield said. She said she sensed an explosion was imminent, so she quickly drove off with her children.
Mr. Bryson had the same concerns, Ms. Hicks said.
She said he told her Friday night at the hospital that he asked the workers whether it was safe for him to be in the area, she said.
"They told him it was OK, so he returned inside," Ms. Hicks said.
Moments later, Mr. Moreno's house exploded, and Ms. Foster's house blew up seconds after.
As firefighters arrived around 5:50 p.m., the triplex closest to the gas leak exploded, Chief Wallace said. No one was inside at that time.
Ms. Foster's 1,000-square-foot home lay in a pile of twisted and charred wood Saturday. Her home's garage fell on her white Oldsmobile car, crushing the car.
"How could they let my mom stay in the house?" Ms. Hicks said.
Family members last saw Ms. Foster on Sunday, when they came over to celebrate Mother's Day. Before they ate dinner, Ms. Foster said a prayer for her family.
"Have us stay tight and close together," grandson Warrens Owens said she told the family. "She loved her family."
The pictures didn't come thru but believe me , these houses were levelled.
A representative for Atmos said that the ruptured line had been located(by UtiliQuest) prior to the boring.