2 GIRLS DIE IN HOPKINTON
EXPLOSION
Author(s): Scott W. Helman,
Globe Staff Correspondent, and Jack Healy,
Globe Correspondent Date: July 25, 2002 Page: A1 Section: Metro/Region
HOPKINTON - Their last night alive began quietly,
with Iris and Violet Carey leafing through a school-supplies catalog in
anticipation of the new school year before heading off together to bed on a
futon. It ended hours later after an apparent natural gas explosion left the two
young sisters gasping for breath in the rubble after their house crashed down on
top of them.
In a disaster that struck in the darkness of
early morning yesterday, 4-year-old Iris and 5-year-old Violet were killed when
an explosion destroyed their apartment building at 65 Main St. downtown.
Authorities believe a natural gas leak may have caused the blast, but said it is
too early to make a final determination. Tara Carey, the girls' mother, told
relatives that her entire family - she, her two daughters, and her husband,
Heath - was trapped amid the rubble of the three-story yellow building, the top
of which was hurled to the street by the explosion. A struggle for air is the
last sound she remembers hearing from one of her daughters.
"[Tara] said it was like going into the
ground," said the girls' grandmother, Cindy Germain. "She thought the
world exploded."
After Tara and Heath Carey escaped, they tried
unsuccessfully to comb through the wreckage to reach their daughters, relatives
said. Helpless, they watched as rescue workers dug through rubble searching for
the girls.
Iris Carey was pulled out first and transported to
Milford-Whitinsville Regional Hospital in Milford, where she was later
pronounced dead, authorities said. Violet Carey was trapped deeper in the debris
and her body was not found until several hours later, according to Hopkinton
Fire Chief Gary Daugherty.
Daugherty said he agonized over delaying the
search for Violet. But he said extricating her from the wreckage before an NStar
crew could contain the gas leak created the potential for another explosion,
risking the lives of emergency workers.
"Due to the condition of the building and
the way that she was trapped in there, there was no way that the rescue crew
could initiate a successful rescue," he said at a news conference
yesterday.\
Authorities said a total of 12 people, in four
families, lived in the four-unit house. Given the time of night and the
magnitude of the destruction, they said it was remarkable that there weren't
more victims.
The tragedy began with a 1:40 a.m. phone call
from a first-floor resident to the Hopkinton Fire Department - located just two
doors from the home - fielded by Lieutenant Stephen Slayman. Janet Webster
reported smelling gas and hearing a motorlike sound coming from the basement.
Webster, who made the call from her cellphone, got her family out, authorities
said. Seconds after Slayman hung up, he said, he heard the deadly blast.
Antonio Defreitas, who lived on the third
floor, said he awoke to the floors dropping out from under him. He, his pregnant
wife, Poliana Compos, whose due date was yesterday, and his son Bryan all
survived a two-story fall and were able to escape after the building collapsed.
"I was very lucky," Defreitas said,
walking around in turquoise sweatpants and slippers. "That's the only thing
that came to my mind: Get out of the house." His son, who rode a Big Wheel
as work crews filled dumpsters with debris, often played with the Carey girls,
Defreitas said.
Compos was transported to MetroWest Medical
Center, where she was doing fine, Defreitas said yesterday afternoon.
Relatives said Tara and Heath Carey never
smelled gas in the house before it exploded. The couple also were taken to
Milford-Whitinsville, where they were treated and released.
Relatives of the two girls gathered at their
grandmother's Milford home yesterday afternoon to grieve. Tara and Heath Carey,
too distraught to speak, had on the medical scrubs they received from the
hospital yesterday morning.
"They lost everything," Germain said.
"Their children. Their car. . . . There's nothing left. Everything is gone.
Everything."
Relatives called Iris and Violet the family's
"little flower garden," Germain said. The girls spent weekends at
Germain's house, where they helped her cook scrambled eggs and pancakes. They
loved playing with Barbie dolls, singing together, and swimming in their
grandparents' pool, Germain said.
"They were so loving," she said.
"They were my life."
Though authorities believe a gas leak on the
west side of the house fueled the explosion, they said the investigation is
still very preliminary.
"At this point, it's way too premature in
the investigation to make any cause determination," said State Police
Sergeant Martin Foley, a member of the state fire marshal's investigation team.
Foley said any kind of electrical spark can
ignite a gas leak, including a malfunctioning pilot light or electrical device
near the source.
Gas explosions most often happen during
construction, but Hopkinton's Building Department has no records of recent work
at the property, and authorities said they knew of no work being done in the
vicinity. NStar spokesman Mike Monahan said the utility has no records of gas
odors or other problems at the house.
The owner of the building, Leonard Pearson of
Hopkinton, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Town records show that
the house had both oil and gas heat.
By 8:30 a.m. yesterday, a backhoe had begun
tearing down what remained of the house. The Red Cross is helping one of the
displaced families with new clothes, food, and temporary housing, and has
offered assistance to the others, a spokeswoman said. An insurance adjuster
working on the case yesterday estimated the damage to be about $300,000.
Among the splintered wood and insulation were
teddy bears, a stroller, and mangled furniture. The back part of the house
remained standing. From the street, onlookers could see a bathtub and
photographs of smiling children tacked on a refrigerator. Firefighters retrieved
photo albums and other mementos, including a dresser drawer plastered with
postcards from Washington, D.C.
The explosion also blew out windows in nearby
businesses and drew neighbors quickly out of bed.
"I jumped out of bed and went down, and I
saw the house in the street. I just couldn't believe it," said Lucas
Charron, a 19-year-old college student who lives next door.
Aubrey Doyle, who owns a liquor store across
the street, hung a "Closed" sign in his door and surveyed the broken
windows and neon beer sign in his business.
"I heard the boom, and I was down here at
2 a.m.," Doyle said, sweeping glass chards off a freezer. "The house
was in the street."
About six months ago, Tara and Heath Carey, who
were married in Copley Square on New Year's Eve in 1997, rented office space in
a Milford professional building on Main Street to house their clothing business
- freakandfrolic.com - which specializes in handmade clothing for the club and
rave scene.
Tara Kennelly, who rented the couple space,
yesterday said she was devastated to learn about the deaths of the two girls,
whom she had met.
"I'm shaking," she said. "They
are going through something unbelievable right now. As the mother of two girls
myself it's unfathomable."
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