LAWRENCE, MA (WBZ-AM) -- Senators Warren and Markey say they are pressing Columbia Gas for answers on their inadequate response to the explosions in the Merrimack Valley.
In a letter to Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Commission, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts and their parent company NiSource on Tuesday, the Senators Tuesday demanding answers about the gas explosions and fires in the Merrimack Valley.
“It is imperative that the people of the Commonwealth are provided an understanding of what caused this disaster and how you responded to it, in order to ensure that we never again face a similar tragedy,” write the Senators in their letters to the companies.
Read Letter To PHMSA [Click Here]
Read Letter To NiSource/Columbia Gas of Massachusetts [Click Here]
The natural gas explosions and fires in the communities of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover on Sept 13, killed one, injured dozens. It also destroyed nearly 70 homes leaving thousands of families with out access to gas.
"We want to know exactly what went wrong, and we want to know what's the threat to other people in Massachusetts...The fact that these explosions occurred and that it was hours before Columbia Gas could make any response at all, and the response was 'a game of duck and weave', is not how you treat people," Warren tells WBZ NewsRadio1030's Laurie Kirby.
Both Senators say that they are looking to answers about reports that Columbia Gas had known that the pipeline system was over-pressurized 12-times beyond it's limit.
Listen to the full interview below.