Abstract:
Hopkinton Fire Chief Gary Daugherty said first-floor resident Janet
Webster had smelled a heavy odor of gas and got into her car with her
children, Emily, 25, Hayley, 15, and Matthew, 19, and was on her cell phone
with Hopkinton Fire Dept. Lt. Stephen Slaman when the gas apparently
exploded.
It was about this time that firefighters reached the home, Daugherty said,
adding that Heath Carey had managed to escape and frantically asked for help
for his wife and girls. Daugherty said firefighters crawled into the
wreckage and found [Tara Carey] in a "void space" and then located
little [Iris], who was covered by a small amount of debris but "in
cardiac arrest."
TRAGIC BLAST: A rescue worker, above, performs CPR on a Carey daughter, one
of two who died in yesterday's Hopkinton apartment building blast, which may
have been caused by a gas leak. At left, firefighters pull a crib from the
top floor of the destroyed residence. Photo by Bill Thompson/Metrowest Daily
News, above; staff photo by Jon Hill, left.
| Full Text: |
| Copyright Boston Herald Library Jul
25, 2002 |
HOPKINTON - Heath and Tara Carey struggled to free
themselves from tons of debris as they listened in anguish to their little
girls' tortured attempts to breathe beneath the rubble of their Hopkinton
home.
"She could hear Iris gasping for air but she
couldn't get to her," Paul Germain said of his daughter, Tara Carey.
"I think she talked to Violet, but she couldn't get
to her. There was too much rubble in the way," the grief-stricken
grandfather said, choking back tears.
The 1:40 a.m. blast in the three-story apartment building
at 65 Main St. - two doors down from the town's fire headquarters and
diagonally across the street from the police station - killed Violet Carey,
5 1/2, and her younger sister, Iris, 4. Their parents, Heath, 26, and Tara,
27, escaped unharmed.
Hopkinton Fire Chief Gary Daugherty said first-floor
resident Janet Webster had smelled a heavy odor of gas and got into her car
with her children, Emily, 25, Hayley, 15, and Matthew, 19, and was on her
cell phone with Hopkinton Fire Dept. Lt. Stephen Slaman when the gas
apparently exploded.
The blast blew the dwelling's roof off and sides out, and
the third floor, occupied by Antonio "Tony" DeFreitas, his wife,
Poliana Compos, and their son, Brian, 5, dropped to the first floor. While
DeFreitas was able to get his family out his now first-floor window with the
help of police, the Carey family on the second floor was trapped. It was
unclear if the resident of another second-floor apartment, Richard Maijs,
37, was home.
Tara Carey's mother, Cindy Germain, said, "They had
not smelled gas before. Everything was normal (Tuesday) night when they went
to bed."
Germain said Tara had read the kids a book at bedtime and
they had flipped through catalogs looking at "back-to-school
stuff." The family went to bed around 11 p.m.
"Tara and Heath are lucky they are alive,"
Cindy Germain said. "Everything came down on them. Tara said it was
like you couldn't breathe. It was so scary. She said it was like the end of
the world. She didn't know what was happening. She said she saw a ball of
fire."
While the parents were desperately trying to free their
legs from a tangle of wood and metal, they called to their children, who had
been asleep next to them on a futon, Cindy Germain said.
It was about this time that firefighters reached the
home, Daugherty said, adding that Heath Carey had managed to escape and
frantically asked for help for his wife and girls. Daugherty said
firefighters crawled into the wreckage and found Tara Carey in a "void
space" and then located little Iris, who was covered by a small amount
of debris but "in cardiac arrest."
Despite furious efforts to revive her, Iris was
pronounced dead at Milford-Whitinsville Regional Hospital.
Violet Carey was found buried under heavy rubble, and
Daugherty said he made the difficult decision to order rescuers out of the
building after paramedics determined the little girl was deceased.
"We still had an active gas leak or what appeared to
be a gas leak on the westerly side of the building," said the chief.
"We were unable to contain it at that point in time and we were just
concerned that there was going to be additional problems with this
building."
It took more than an hour to stop the flow of gas because
workers had to dig up the street after they found access to the building's
main valve blocked by debris. It was only then that distraught firefighters
were able to return to the grim task of cutting Violet's body free,
Daugherty said.
State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan, and state police Sgt.
Martin Foley, an investigator assigned to Coan, said natural gas appears to
be the cause of the blast but other sources have not been excluded.
"There is gas that goes into the house, there was
some gas smells, so we'll be looking into that extensively, as well as some
other sources," said Foley.
Investigators yesterday excavated the basement and
removed gas meters and appliances for analysis, said Foley, who added gas
lines running into the dwelling were scheduled for testing last night.
Mike Monahan, a spokesman for NSTAR, which provides gas
for Hopkinton, said there is no record of any gas work being done at the
home or surrounding area in recent months. "We have no history of gas
problems or complaints at that address," he said.
Daugherty said the dwelling is owned by Leonard and Ann
Marie Pearson of Hopkinton and the chief said he was unaware of any fire or
health code complaints involving the address. Leonard Pearson declined
comment.
The explosion was heard miles away and a tearful Kathy
Dragin showed up yesterday to check on her friends the Websters.
"My husband and I both jumped out of bed," she
said. "I thought lightning hit the house. It was very, very loud."
Caption: TRAGIC BLAST: A rescue worker, above, performs
CPR on a Carey daughter, one of two who died in yesterday's Hopkinton
apartment building blast, which may have been caused by a gas leak. At left,
firefighters pull a crib from the top floor of the destroyed residence.
Photo by Bill Thompson/Metrowest Daily News, above; staff photo by Jon Hill,
left
.
