State finds 'probable violation' in gas blast

The report released yesterday by the state's Department of Telecommunications and Energy cited a number of findings, including that NStar had no records indicating it had tested service line segments for maximum operating pressure.

Also, NStar did not monitor a steel service line for atmospheric corrosion in the five-year period prior to the July 24 explosion at the home at 65 Main St., the report indicated. NStar also failed to perform leakage surveys of its service lines inside 65 Main St.

The explosion shocked the community, which rallied in grief around Tara and Heath Carey, a couple who had lost all they owned and two children they loved, 4-year-old Iris and 5-year-old Violet.

A spokesman for the law firm representing the Carey family said the couple would not be available to comment on the report until a 10 a.m. news conference scheduled for today in Boston. In a statement yesterday, attorneys Edward M. Swartz and Alan L. Cantor of Swartz & Swartz in Boston, said, "Our clients have asked us to fully explore the deficiencies in NStar's system, so that other tragedies like this one can be avoided."

NStar spokesman Michael Durand released a statement yesterday defending the Boston-based utility company.

"We strongly disagree with the findings of the new DTE staff report," the statement read. "The DTE previously conducted a comprehensive investigation with the state fire marshal's office and the state's independent safety expert. That report, issued in September, concluded that our equipment operated properly. We are dismayed that there is no reference to that conclusion in this new report."

Asked about the distinction in the two reports' findings -- the most recent one indicating failures on the part of the utility company -- Durand said: "We stand by our statement. We strongly disagree with DTE."

What penalties NStar might face weren't clear yesterday.

The tragedy began to unfold around 1:40 a.m. on July 24 when Janet Webster, a first-floor resident of the four-family house at 65 Main St., called the Hopkinton Fire Department to report a motorlike sound and gas fumes coming from the basement. Most of the residents got out in time, escaping the explosion that tore the roof off the house moments later.

"All I could see are orange and blue flames," Tara Carey told the Globe a few days later. "Everything just started falling down. We fell straight down. We were so crushed we couldn't move."

Carey and her husband were stuck in the rubble for a few minutes, and at one point, Heath Carey said he could feel what he believed was one of the girl's legs close by him. Fighting to break loose from the boards and plaster that had fallen on him, Heath wriggled into a passageway leading to the street and dragged his wife out by her feet. The two were held back by firefighters as they tried to dig through the rubble to find their children. The sisters were buried side by side in a single white casket several days later.

Authorities initially attributed the explosion to a natural gas leak, but the Careys filed a civil lawsuit before the state fire marshal concluded the investigation. The suit, filed in Middlesex Superior Court in October 2002, alleged that the couple's landlord and NStar had failed to ensure that the building's natural gas system was functioning properly.

The couple contended that the landlord, Leonard Pearson of Hopkinton, failed to inspect the building's natural gas infrastructure and install natural gas detectors. NStar had replaced the meters on the property on March 6 and May 23 of that year, according to the suit. Despite the company's efforts to repair the source of the leak, residents still complained that gas odors were present.