I like how you sound disappointed. Like aww man, no terrorist attack? Pack up the tents.
I like how you sound disappointed. Like aww man, no terrorist attack? Pack up the tents.
No one's gonna carry out a terrorist attack in Harlem
Yeah when I posted this I wasn't sure what the deal was, figured it warranted a thread if it did turn out to be something, can probably be moved to the Miss Piggy thread at this point.
Oh god, that's not right.
Seven confirmed dead, still a few unaccounted for. Really sucks, the gas company was apparently en route after some calls about smelling gas when it happened.
Apparently someone had called 15 minutes before the explosion to report gas and Con Ed had sent a crew out.
They've been saying in the news that some store owner smelled gas Tuesday night, but unless she actually did anything about it Con Ed would never know about it. Gas leaks can happen for a few reasons, though I'm sure everyone involved will try to sue Con Ed.
That's what I'm assuming as well, even though I'd say the building owners are more responsible for their maintenance. I think Con Ed was as responsible as they could be under the circumstances. They got a call and sent someone out. It's not really their job to regularly check gas lines in every building in the city.
I was dating a girl living at 127 and madison up that way, shits crazy that it was that close by.
We hit a gas line with an excavator several years ago and NW Natural Gas was there in less than 10 minutes to shut it off and repair it. Police and Fire/Rescue cleared 3 blocks around the break within minutes as well. This case seems a little more ambiguous (i.e. "I think I smell a gas leak...oh well, someone else can deal with it"), but gas companies take leaks very seriously and usually respond immediately to reports of gas smells.
I work for a contractor that does work for Con Ed electric and gas. If we get an emergency call we have to respond immediately with a crew if Con Ed cannot take care of it themselves. Most of the time it is just a smell though. If you hit a gas line you can be sure that everything around you is cleared out. A small leak from a service or in a building is dangerous, but generally does not have the same emergency (police/fire) response.
Also, the building owner should be shutting off the gas into the building if they smell anything in case it is their own lines and not at the street.
They can try to sue the Gas company, but quite frankly they probably won't have any luck. Gas company isn't responsible of damages to their lines caused by accidents.
If it was in fact deterioration of their equipment over time and reports had been filed to show that servicing had been requested in the past and was not carried out, maybe there would be grounds for a claim. But they seem to have been answering to the call that was made due to the smell of gas. It's really hard to know if the owner of the building could have been notified in time, or if the onsite manager of the building was notified in time and if he could have done anything. But negligence from those two people would be first in line to get hit with a lawsuit if action could have been taken but was not.
Those buildings are really old and its also difficult to know if shutoffs were properly maintained or implemented/retrofitted into the system.
CBS New Report 1617 EST
Some more information. Seems like the area had been dealing with the alert smells for gas. Con Ed said nothing was detected in February from their mobile trucks. People reported to 311 instead of Con Ed? I don't know what 311 is, I'm assuming a city non-immediate alert line? Wonder how that is handled in regards to events like these.
We literally had a gas explosion last week with a fatality.
Company working outside a house, digging, working with pipes. Homeowner comes outside, says, hey, I smell gas. Goes back inside to get a few things and Boom, house doesn't even exist anymore.
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopo...sion4-0304.jpg
http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/images/wp...11_600x338.jpg
Now you posted those pics, I remember seeing that explosion on the evening news.
Don't fuck with gas. I've got a friend who got permanently disfigured thanks to a rupture. Sucks.
All this kind of shit is why I'm glad we use electric here.
Meh. It's not just the explosions. I never could quite work the gas stoves we used to have. Granted, that was back in the 80s and I doubt they're the same now. I also think gas tends to be more expensive, but there's really no basis for comparison here.
No, gas is significantly cheaper. Gas stoves also have improved significantly, and they're very easy to fix. They usually have burners with different BTUs, too, so some criticisms levied against gas (e.g., that it can't keep things warm at lower temperatures) are not universally true—much as they are not universally true in relation to electric stoves, either, since a shitty electric appliance won't apply heat efficiently.
Electric does have an advantage in its lower-end appliances being cheaper to buy up front, but once you get to the low-mid range or higher, everything is essentially the same price. In the long run, therefore, gas comes out on top.
I did an extensive amount of research into this once I moved to this coast, as you can see, and I'm now used to using gas appliances all the time.
TL;DR: Gas is cheaper and has no disadvantages.