This week, Harlem, last week, Ewing, NJ, 20 years ago, Edison, NJ: methane explosions that destroyed buildings and killed at least one person, according to investigors or local officials apparently caused by gas company. This is one downside to the fracked “natural” gas industry’s answer to cold weather in the U.S. northeast.

WPVI-TV wrote 6 March 2014, Woman killed in Ewing Twp. explosion identified as Linda Cerritelli,

It all began around 11:45 a.m. when utility company PSE&G got a call from contractor Henkels and McCoy that a worker had damaged a gas line while working on an electrical problem.

Crews were working on it about an hour later when—for reasons that are still not known—the gas line ignited.

At a news conference Wednesday, Mayor Bert Steinmann said the gas line was marked out in the area where a contractor was working. Officials don’t know what went wrong.

PSE&G issued a statement saying it would not comment further until the investigation was complete.

Documents show Henkels and McCoy had been fined more than $100,000 by federal safety monitors for problems at two other New Jersey work sites.

The company was cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for violations involving signaling, warning signs and protection of workers during excavations. The company is contesting the fines.

A total of 55 homes were damaged. Officials say about 15 to 22 homes will be uninhabitable.

Sounds like Spectra’s infamous Durham Woods apartment fire, Edison, NJ, 1994, which evacuated thousands, made hundreds homeless, and scared one woman to death, all because of corrosion in a dent Spectra knew about years before, according to NTSB.

How about we get out of the carbon bubble before it bursts, and get on with sun, wind, and water to power the world?

-jsq

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