Explosion probed as residents settle back into neighborhood

Sept. 21--LAWRENCE -- Eileen Grenier wants the gas stove out of her house -- now.

The 69-year-old grandmother was home last Thursday with her daughter and young grandson when the house around the corner blew up.

Grenier, her daughter, Nicole, 32, and Brody, 4 1/2, ran to nearby Route 114 where Eileen's husband, Michael, picked them up.

"My daughter Nicole was barefoot," said Michael Grenier of 4 Cabot Road. "She said, 'Dad, get us out of here!'"

Since their return home Tuesday to the Colonial Heights neighborhood, Grenier said "we've all been having trouble sleeping."

"And my wife wants the gas stove out of the house," he said.

The Greniers have lived on Cabot Road for 41 years. A short distance away, a home at 35 Chickering Road blew up -- one of the first gas-driven explosions and fires that broke out across Lawrence, Andover and North Andover on Thursday, Sept. 13.

That night, thousands of Columbia Gas customers were affected. Both gas and electric service was shut down amid the explosions and fires and everyone in South Lawrence was ordered to evacuate.

Power came back Sunday and folks were allowed to return home. But gas service has yet to restored in most of the effected neighborhoods.

Over-pressurization of gas carrying lines are believed to be the cause of the fires and explosions. A probe continues by federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board.

On Thursday, a week after the explosion, a backhoe was stationed in the middle of the destruction at 35 Chickering Road. Before it was large piles of rubble, the house had been a five-bedroom Cape built in 1956.

State troopers assigned to the fire marshal's office were working on the property investigating the "cause and origin" of the explosion.

Several men wearing NEFCO hard hats were also on the property. NEFCO is a private fire investigation service, according to its website.

Lawrence Firefighter Michael Guzman was parked in front of the house on a safety detail.

With the house was being razed and work underway, Michael Grenier, 69, chatted with other neighbors around lunchtime.

He said the neighborhood has always been friendly but the kindness and caring shown over the past week has been remarkable.

Lawrence Fire Lt. David Amero, a neighbor, went from house to house shutting off the gas immediately after the explosion, Grenier said.

"Neighbors just helping each other. It was awesome to see," said Grenier, a veteran sports reporter for The Eagle-Tribune's sister newspaper The Salem News.

The explosion at 35 Chickering Road claimed the life of Leonel Rondon, 18.

Rondon, who had just gotten his driver's license, pulled his RAV4 into the driveway at the home when the explosion flattened the house and sent the chimney toppling onto his car.

Later pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital, Rondon's funeral was held Wednesday at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Lawrence.

A teen-aged girl who was in the home also suffered severe leg injuries, police said. An update on her condition was unavailable Thursday.

Lawrence attorney Socrates de la Cruz confirmed Thursday that he is representing Omayra Figueroa and her three children who lived at 35 Chickering Road.

De la Cruz declined further comment when reached late Thursday afternoon.

Meanwhile, neighbor Emilio Nardozza of 48 Chickering Road was outside and across the street Thursday checking on work underway at the destroyed home.

A week before, Nardozza, 91, had just turned on the TV, to watch the news, when the explosion "nearly threw me out my chair," he said.

"I heard the explosion and I saw a flash of light ... I thought a plane had blown up in the sky," said Nardozza, who has lived in the neighborhood for 59 years.

He stepped outside just as a police cruiser was flying up the street and stopped in front of the rubble.

"Get out of your house," the officer yelled to him, he said. "I left my house with just what I had on."

Nardozza then spent several days at his daughter's house in Seabrook, New Hampshire, until power, which was cut to South Lawrence after the explosions and fires, was restored.

"It's too much of a memory," said Nardozza, a World War II Navy veteran, of the past week.

Down the street, Michael Grenier described the entire ordeal "as something like a scene from a disaster movie."

"I know it's been a week but it feels like a year," he said.

He and Eileen have yet to find any visible damage to their home. However, he said an insurance adjuster is coming out soon to take a look.

"We don't want to move. We just want to be made whole again," he said.

Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter @EagleTribJill.

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