EVERSOURCE HOME EXPLOSION LAWSUIT: VICTIM FAMILY SUES OVER NATURAL GAS LEAK THAT BLEW UP HOUSE AND KILLED FATHER, “COMMUNITY HERO”
Published in Lawsuits on August 13, 2024
Reading Time: 8 minutes
Attorney: Eversource Energy Detected Natural Gas Leak in 2018 But Failed to Take Any Action; Company Linked to Rash of Explosions in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
BOSTON – AUGUST 13, 2024 – The family of Greg Sharrigan, the man killed in his Maynard, Massachusetts home when it exploded in 2021 due to a leaking natural gas line, filed a major lawsuit against Eversource Energy. According to the complaint, Eversource found the underground leak in 2018 but never fixed it, due to a series of systemic failures and a gas main replacement policy that prioritized company profits over public safety.
The lawsuit was filed in Middlesex County Superior Court by J. Tucker Merrigan of the law firm Sweeney Merrigan Law, LLP (Sweeney Merrigan).
J. Tucker Merrigan, managing partner, Sweeney Merrigan, said: “As shocking as this case already was, it’s even more staggering that Eversource’s alleged safety system is riddled with cost-saving measures. Eversource fails to properly track and repair leaking natural gas pipes because it prioritizes cost over danger; it represents a classic corporate failure of profits over people. It actually detected the underground gas leak years before it killed Greg Sharrigan, but then didn’t do anything about it. Instead, Eversource was prioritizing more lucrative maintenance projects. Across the region, Eversource is also the company behind a disturbing pattern of natural gas line explosions, and it all stems from its business model that values profits more than real people.”
Carol Sharrigan, widow of Greg Sharrigan, said: “What Eversource did is very hard for me to talk about because the pain they caused is truly unspeakable. Nothing can ever fix this kind of damage. But I am raising my voice to prevent this from ever happening again. The public needs to know that Eversource has been cutting corners and putting lives at risk.”
Ethan Sharrigan, eldest son of Greg Sharrigan, said: “This is the hardest thing our family has ever gone through, but the community has rallied around us. Hundreds of people came to my father’s memorial service. But it doesn’t change the fact that the Eversource disaster left a gaping hole in our family that can never be filled. My daughter is almost three now, born almost exactly three months after that terrible day, and I still don’t know how I will explain any of this to her, or how this ever could have happened.”
Jason Sharrigan, youngest son of Greg Sharrigan, said: “My Dad was the man I aspired to become. He still is. He taught me and he showed me what it means to be a good person, and I know I wasn’t alone in feeling this way. Everyone in our neighborhood and everyone who worked with him knew his generosity. On September 2nd, 2021, my house exploded. It could have been any house in the neighborhood, and my dad would have been the first to be there to help out. But it was my house, our house, and my father was inside. We lost our dad, and the community lost a great man. This is what Eversource took from us, what they could take from anyone.”
According to the lawsuit, at 4:14 p.m., Thursday, September 2, 2021, a natural gas explosion destroyed the Sharrigan’s single-family home at 27 Park Street in Maynard, Massachusetts. The force of the blast sent the home’s windows into the street, caused a significant structure fire, and killed Greg Sharrigan, who was inside.
The previous day, the Sharrigans had noticed an unusual “musty” smell but figured it was caused by recent heavy rain and their slab and rock basement. But by 9 a.m. Thursday, the smell had become more noticeable. Carol opened the windows and aired out the house before leaving for errands. As Carol prepared for work at noon, the smell continued to linger. When Greg dropped Carol off at work that afternoon, he assured her that he would call the fire department if the smell persisted.
At 4:14 p.m., Greg called the Maynard Fire Department. The dispatcher asked Greg whether the smell was natural gas, but Greg, a licensed union electrician, did not believe it was. Greg stated, “it [the smell] has been all last night, and I had fans going and the windows open, so I am pretty sure it is not gas.” The dispatcher immediately sent the Maynard Fire Department to the Sharrigan home.
Before they could arrive, Greg went into the basement to continue his investigation. Greg attempted to turn on a hanging light bulb. The light sparked an immediate and catastrophic explosion, killing him.
A video taken from a home down the street demonstrates the volume and force of the blast, and captures the immediate reactions of neighbors.
Following the explosion, investigations were undertaken by the Maynard Fire Department, the Maynard Police, the Massachusetts State Police, Eversource Energy, assorted insurance companies, affected stakeholders, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU). All investigations reached the same conclusion: the explosion was caused by a preventable natural gas leak due to a severely corroded gas main owned and operated by Eversource Energy. Natural gas migrated from the leak through the earth, pooling in the Sharrigan basement before exploding.
The investigations identified multiple systematic failures that led to the explosion. Eversource misclassified and improperly tracked leaks, corrosion, and failing infrastructure and failed to respond to information about these issues after being made aware of the dangers posed to the community. Investigators also discovered that Eversource prioritized cost-saving and profit-producing measures in its gas service planning, implementation, maintenance, and operation over the safety of the people it serves. As a result of Eversource’s choices, Greg Sharrigan lost his life, a wife lost her husband, two sons lost their father, and a community lost a hero.
FAILURES IN RECORDKEEPING, CLASSIFICATION AND MONITORING
The DPU found that within Eversource’s records, multiple prior leaks on and around Sherman and Park Street were confused with each other. The identified leaks were marked in the wrong location, incorrectly located on reinspection, or undetected by mobile survey. Many of the Eversource documents were in part or in whole illegible.
The DPU investigation included examining Eversource’s leak history, leak survey, and leak repair records near the explosion. It found several areas of concern regarding one leak record in particular, leak #MA270688. The areas of concern include misclassification of leaks, improperly tracking leaks, and inadequate leak response:
- In 2017, Eversource identified a leak outside the Sharrigan house, four years prior to the explosion. Because of the leak’s location next to the Sharrigan household, Eversource’s internal guidelines required that they undertake a subsurface structure check to 200 feet in all directions. This was never done.
- In 2018, Eversource could not identify the same issue but did find a new leak in the ground 43 feet from the Sharrigan house. This new leak was not given a leak number, so it could not be tracked properly, nor was it investigated further pursuant to Eversource’s standards. The new leak should also have triggered a subsurface structure check. Again, this subsurface check was not conducted.
- In October 2020, on another test, the leak on the Sharrigan household was re-identified, and again, no action was taken. According to Eversource records and guidelines, Eversource was obligated to conduct a standard subsurface structure check that would have identified the Sharrigan leak almost four years prior to the explosion.
Eversource had actually found the Sharrigan leak in 2018, where its records demonstrated a known underground leak that went unrepaired, unidentified, and untracked.
FAILURES OF THE GAS MAIN REPLACEMENT INDEX (GMRI)
Eversource developed a tool called the Gas Main Replacement Index (GMRI) to assess pipeline segments for areas of active corrosion and leaks and quantify risk when prioritizing projects.
But the DPU investigation found that in practice, the GMRI did not meaningfully monitor corrosion or leaks nor effectively identify risk. Instead, the GMRI acted to prioritize profits while serving as a performative safety theater for Eversource. Eversource’s use of the GMRI effectively misled the community, shareholders, and governmental oversight.
Eversource made decisions in its GMRI formula that kept scores low where its operating costs might otherwise increase. Scores were only raised when the company had opportunities to replace the main lines of gas that were of potential concern at the same time as another project in the area, benefitting from reduced excavation and installation costs.
For example, if a town or other contractor was conducting work allowing for overlapping access to the suspect gas main and lowering the cost to Eversource, these gas mains were flagged and replaced. But even where a dangerously deteriorated pipe required remediation, without a GMRI score raised by the money-saving potential of piggybacking on other projects, the company would not initiate a replacement of the infrastructure.
The DPU incident report states: “By employing the GMRI, there is no number of leaks and no leak growth rate that could have alerted Eversource to active corrosion on Sherman Street and Park Street. Conversely, had the municipality alerted Eversource that Sherman Street was going to be paved following a water or sewer project, the opportunity for joint trenching would have generated a score that would identify this main as actively corroding. By solely utilizing the GMRI, Eversource did not effectively monitor for areas of active corrosion as required by federal pipeline safety regulations.”
Eversource also failed to properly assess the condition of the pipe that caused the Sharrigan explosion and incorrectly identified the main at the corner of Sherman and Park Street as coated steel when it should have been classified as 1938 bare steel. Misclassification of the pipe was compounded by Eversource’s choice to prioritize the reduction of repair expenses over safety. Thus, Eversource applied the wrong material score to the GMRI, changing the risk analysis and the need for replacement or repair.
UNQUALIFIED OPERATORS
The DPU investigation also revealed concerns surrounding the qualifications of employees performing leak surveys of Eversource’s natural gas infrastructure. Several individuals performing leak surveys were not qualified to do so per Eversource’s Operator Qualification Plan (OQ Plan).
Investigators found 737 violations of the Eversource OQ Plan in the two years before the Sharrigan explosion. Unqualified individuals may miss signs of increasing danger or noticeable leaks, fail to appreciate the readings or dangerousness of a leak they do identify, fail to fully or adequately remediate a leak, or fail to report or record the situation on the ground accurately, thus allowing dangerous conditions to persist.
PROFIT OVER PROTECTION
The Massachusetts State Legislature passed the Gas Leaks Act in 2014, requiring all utility companies providing natural gas to submit an annual Gas System Enhancement Plan (GSEP). The GSEP offers financial incentives and imposes reporting requirements, including plans to replace and repair aging infrastructure. For example, a utility company is incentivized to replace a gas main by allowing for the recovery of the cost of replacement and a 10% profit to shareholders from the households and communities the replaced main serves.
The GSEP further provides that a utility provider may request and receive DPU approval to raise rates for infrastructure improvement efforts. Almost every year since the GSEP was enacted, Eversource has returned to the DPU and requested approvals for rate hikes.
In its efforts to constantly increase profit, Eversource sought opportunities to take advantage of its GSEP, replacing infrastructure instead of repairing it. As a result, Eversource could often be found replacing, not repairing, gas mains on dead-end suburban streets despite the street having no active leak or concern for corrosion. This behavior is particularly prominent in cases where more leak-prone or corrosive infrastructure nearby requires a repair and not a replacement but would not generate profits, thus costing Eversource and its shareholders more.
While Eversource characterized the Sharrigan explosion as an “isolated, tragic accident,” the 2021 blast is just one of several recent Eversource gas line explosions, including in the Fenway neighborhood (January 2024), Stamford, Connecticut (June 2024), Beacon Hill (January 2023), Somerville (May 2023), South Boston (June 2023), Harvard Square (August 2023), Needham (November 2023), Hartford, Connecticut (December 2023), and in Downtown Boston near the near the Massachusetts State House (July 2022).
In 2020, Eversource acquired the Massachusetts division of Columbia Gas for $1.1 billion after Columbia Gas was ordered to sell the assets following its role at the center of the 2018 natural gas explosions in Merrimack Valley. The acquisition increased Eversource’s Massachusetts natural gas customer base from 300,000 to over 630,000.
Testifying before the Massachusetts House Senate Committee regarding the Merrimack Valley explosions and its acquisition of Columbia Gas, William Akley, president of the Eversource Gas Business Unit, stated, “whenever a horrific event like this happens, you open up and do everything possible to prevent it from happening again. We’re going to enhance and further support improvements we can make.”
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Max Karlin at (703) 276-3255 or mkarlin@hastingsgroupmedia.com.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Related court documents, photos and video are available to members of the media at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13i4k8vH995Pez4mEwwwAv4153khWUF0L?usp=sharing.
Sweeney Merrigan Law, LLP works to create a safer community by holding responsible parties accountable and building trust through transparent communication and unwavering support for our clients. We provide first-class legal representation, ensuring our clients’ rights are protected and their voices heard. More info at https://www.sweeneymerrigan.com/.