Con Ed Criticized For Gas Leak That Caused Fatal Explosion

The family of the woman who was killed when their house in Floral Park Queens exploded, apparently from a gas leak, visited the site of their leveled house. Dindial Boodram, whose wife Ghanwatti died, told the Daily News, "I want answers, I need answers" about how Con Ed handled reports for a leak—utility workers had been on the scene for 90 minutes and never evacuated residents in spite of high gas levels from a street manhole.

Con Ed spokesman Michael Clendenin explained to the NY Post that the gas levels were not dangerous at the home of the people who called about the smell of gas, "There was no protocol...Which house would you evacuate first?" The News says that an indoor reading of 10% triggers a house evacuation; the reading under a nearby manhole was 80% (it should be zero in normal situations).

The Post reports, "The worker called in an emergency at 4:15 p.m. and continued to take readings, but no one was evacuated. Additional crews pulled up 35 minutes later, just as Boodram's house burst into flames." City Councilman Eric Gioia, a frequent critic of Con Ed, said, "Of course, you should evacuate this street. It's common sense. They have to understand that they're rolling the dice with people's lives." Back in 2007, a Queens grandmother died from her burns in a gas leak; both Con Ed and the FDNY could not find the cause of the gas smell in the neighborhood.

According to the NY Times, Con Ed "found a small hole in a two-inch gas main in front the house that appeared to have been the source of a leak" as well as a "damaged electrical cable near that hole." However, Con Ed is "still investigating what had caused the hole and what had touched off the explosion." And one of Boodram's young sons, 10-year-old Ryan, said to the Times, "Before she died, she had once left me a letter so she said I could always remember her, but it was in the house when it exploded."