``Life just isn't the same,'' Heath Carey said at a news conference at his lawyer's office yesterday.

Carey and his wife, Tara, fielded questions from reporters one day after a state agency issued a report saying the Nstar gas company may have violated federal and state regulations by neglecting to maintain the gas pipes at the building where they rented their apartment.

The Careys, who have a new baby since the deaths of their daughters, Violet, 5, and Iris, 4, said they are pressing ahead with a lawsuit against Nstar and their landlord because they hope it will help other people avoid the heartache they have suffered.

Tara Carey said the state Department of Telecommunications and Energy report - which cited Nstar for failure to maintain their delivery lines - brought a measure of relief to her and her husband.

``It's been 16 long months, and we finally have some answers. We want to bring the children some kind of peace,'' she said.

Attorney Edward Swartz of Swartz & Swartz slammed gas company employees for failing to detect corroded fittings at the Main Street apartment building. ``These people weren't trained to do what they had to do, according to federal regulations,'' he said.

Swartz said the equipment deficiencies at the home were egregious, citing a passage in the report that said ``a threaded mechanical attachment had degraded to the point where the two pieces were not attached.''

Nstar has denied wrongdoing, and company president Thomas May criticized DTE in a letter to the agency's chairman for the appearance the report creates.

``I find it completely inexcusable that the department allowed these documents to be prepared and released in such a way as to create the public impression that Nstar Gas was in any way responsible for causing this terrible tragedy,'' he wrote.