When natural gas started shooting out of a 6-inch-wide pipe after a contractor’s machine struck it at the corner of Abbey and Intervale roads on Jan. 6, it wasn’t just the smell that could be detected as far as Middlesex Middle School.
It was the noise, as well, Darien Police Chief Duane Lovello told the Police Commission at its Wednesday meeting.
Present at the “after action” meeting were Lovello, First Selectman Jayme Stevenson, Darien Police Capt. Gary Pavia (the patrol division commander), Public Works Director Ed Gentile, Fire Marshal Bob Buch, Deputy Fire Marshal Marc McEwan (who is also the town’s emergency management director) and representatives from Eversource (the utility that operates the natural gas line) and Aquarion (which runs a water line that was disrupted as an Eversource crew was fixing the gas line).
Police Chief Duane Lovello (right) discusses the natural gas leak emergency at the Police Commission meeting on Wednesday. On the left is Commission Chairman J. Paul Johnson.
Lovello said the meeting was called because “We just want to make sure we’re on the same page in the event we do have an emergency” with any other gas lines. “We are seeing an increase in the amount of gas service that’s being supplied to the town. We have a fairly significant gas line project going on at Leroy Avenue.”
Buch said after the incident that the leak could have resulted in an explosion. “We were very fortunate […] we didn’t end up with a catastrophic incident,” he said.
Asked about how the leak happened, Lovello gave out a bit more information than town officials had so far.
As has already been reported by Darienite.com, Grasso Construction, the contractor for the Abbey Road/Intervale Road sewer line project, had a crew digging exploratory holes to determine the exact locations of neighborhood natural gas lines.
Lovello said:
“They [the Grasso employees] identified a gas line and then [used] a piece of heavy equipment in an attempt to make the trench a little bigger and inadvertently hit the gas line.
“And then while they [an Eversource crew] were trying to repair the gas line, [that crew] hit a water line servicing a nearby house. So there’s learning experiences there for the utilities, as well. […]
“[Capt.] Gary [Pavia] and I were down there. If you could have heard that gas line when you came t0 Middlesex Middle School — this [gas leak] is near the Stamford line — you can hear it […]
“Wow” said each of the three members of the Police Commission, one after the other.
Stevenson, when asked for comment on the gas leak, said she was happy that the gas didn’t explode and grateful for the work of Darien’s first responders in helping to keep the neighborhood safe.
About 35 volunteer firefighters with all three of Darien’s fire departments and a number of police on the scene knocked on doors at least as far as a quarter-mile away, strongly urging residents to leave until the leak was stopped.
About 43 homes lost natural gas service, which was restored about 24 hours later.
A Darien Police spokesman said earlier this month that, in addition to door-to-door messages, the department alerted neighbors within a half mile of the gas leak at 1:01 p.m., using the town’s CodeRED system of one-way phone messages and texts.
Another message was sent at 1:41 p.m. to tell the same residents that the damaged gas line had been shut off, but that there would be ongoing road closures as repairs continued, the spokesman said.
Darienite.com’s previous coverage of this incident:
- The initial article covering the emergency (Jan. 6, updated Jan. 7)
- Fire Marshal: ‘We’re Very Fortunate … We Didn’t End Up With a Catastrophic Incident’ (Jan. 7)
- Public Works Director: Natural Gas Line Hit by Machine Digging — Against Regulations (Jan. 11)
The Wednesday, Jan. 20 Darien Police Commission meeting was recorded by Darien TV79. Here’s the video (which is less than 14 minutes long):
Police Comm 1-20-16 from Darien TV79 on Vimeo.