1970-01-22

              SOUTH F'DALE PUBLIC LIBRARY
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POWELL HOUSE 1700 FARMINfiDALE OBSERVER
WHERE THE HISTORY OF YOUR COMMUNITY IS RECORDED WEEKLY
An Official Newspaper of The Incorporated Village of Farmingdale — Serving Greater Farmingdale, Bethpage and Melville •
Vol. 7 No. 22 Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735 Thursday, January 22, 1970
DISTRICT 22 RESIDENTS
ESCAPE IN GAS EXPLOSION
Three District 22 families residing in Upper Massapequa Park were
fortunate to escape with their lives on Monday evening, when a gas
leak resulted in an explosion and fire which completely destroyed one
dwelling and partially damaged two adjoining homes.
Three concrete steps that once led to the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Howard Wolfe at 1518 Lakeshore Drive, Massapequa Park, are all
that is left of a gas- leak fire explosion that happened at 10 o'clock on
Monday evening. Two adjoining homes show scars of what could have
been a major tragedy and disaster in an area hampered by the
Nassau County sewer construction program now underway in that
area. Miraculously no one was hurt.
The Wolfe children Daniel, sixteen months, Jonathan, five and
Matthew, age six, were asleep when the father, a guidance counselor
at North Shore High School; ithe mother a high school teacher, who
substitutes at Island Trees, were preparing to retire. Without war­ning,
the house shook and exploded. Both parents ran to the children's
bedroom and were groping for the youngest child, who apparently had
been thrown out of bed. " I do not know how I found him in the dark I
just did," Mrs. Wolfe said.
The Wolfes fled downstairs with the children and passed the
children outside to neighbors who had come running after the blast
had rocked the neighborhood.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. John Parker of 97 Violet Street and the
home of Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Jordon of 96 Rose Street, flanked the
Wolfe home, and received considerable damage. They evacuated as
well as other neighbors in seconds the house was in flames.
Mrs. Jordon was watching television with her daughter in the
bedroom when she was knocked off the bed by the " terrible blast next
door."
Neighbors for several blocks head the explosion and after finding
out what had happened, evacuating their homes and spent the night
with neighbors.
Mrs. Franklyn Neiman, of 80 Rose Street, said she was watching
television when the explosion rocked her house. She was at home with
her four children when the youngest began screaming.
Earlier in the day, at 11 o'clock that morning, two blocks south on
Lake Shore Drive and Walker Street, a similar two inch gas main had
broken and a nearby resident, Gunther K. Haebich of 85 Walker
Street, said that flames shot up " more than a story high." Efforts to
put out the blaze with trucks of soil by construction workers, com­plicated
the problem for the Long Island Lighting Company, it was
learned.
Later, Massapequa Park Building Insepctor Al Zimmer was
dispatched to the scene and was told that the situation was remedied.
The Long Island Lighting Company shut off the main gas main which
affected about a dozen homes until later in the day.
Massapequa Fire Chief Edward Speehr said that both fire hydrants
in the area were frozen and took about ten minutes to break open. The
Rescue unit and one pumper stood all night long while Long Island
Lighting Company workmen looked for other possible leaks and
checked various houses. Many people evacuated.
Village Hall in Massapequa Park was opened up as an emergency
measure who had no place to stay on Monday evening. Mayor E.
Wayne Sunderland Jr. said that " because of the kindness of neigh­bors,
no one came to stay."
Members of the Seventh Precinct of the Nassau County Police and
members of the Massapequa Park Police Auxiliary also responded
and cordoned off the area.
Members of the Village Board were notified of the explosion during
the course of the weekly Monday night Village Board meeting. Mayor
Sunderland went into action and asked for a complete report from the
Fire Marshall's office and he called the Nassau County Executive
Eugene Nickerson and Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Burke on
Tuesday and asked for a personal inspection and any possible
assistance in the matter.
" Periods of extreme cold spells always caused trouble and when the
ground freezes gas travels in the line of least resistance when a gas
main is broken, according to County Fire Marshal Peter Lynch. " In
such cases, it may follow a recently filled utility or water line and if
ny automatic electric equipment such as a flame on an oil burner or
a spark from any other source comes in contact with the escaping gas,
an explosion occurs, Lynch said.
Lynch said that the gas line near the Wolfe home when dug up had a
" split" in it and is now in a testing lab to determine whethere it was
defective or struck by heavy equipment.
Lynch attributed the frozen fire hydrants to the recent sewer
digging and the loose soil in the area.
According to Wiliam Sherrard, a public information official at the
Long Island Lighting company said that when a section of the two inch
gas main was removed, " It snowed definite evidence of being broken
by heavy equipment, presumbably caused by Zara and Sons Con­struction
Company, engaged in the sewer construction program.
Sherrard, said that it is normal procedure to follow regulations as
outlined by the State during such programs. He said that when a
contractor is to do work near a LILCO facility, his company must be
notified. The contractor is then made aware of the location of the
utilities facilities prior to the beginning of work. LILCO workman
then check out to be sure that there are no gas leaks.
When a contractor works near these facilities, he is to uncover them
by hand and not by equipment before proceeding with any work which
requires heavy machinery. Backfilling of excavations is to be com­posed
of clean fill and that LILCO has inspectors for periodic in­spection.
Several residents claimed that the contractor was using broken
concrete, trees and debris in back filling, one taxpayer said that " A
closer check and inspection should be made during the backfilling of
a road to make sure that no damage is done to fire hydrants, gas
mains.
Sherrard told The Observer that normally a contractor follows the
regulations set down by the state, things like this should not happen
even though an accident is possible, but not one right after the other
on the same day.
When asked if similar occurrences took place during sewer con­struction
programs in other communities, Sherrard said he does not
recall such problems.
The detection program was still going on on Wednesday.
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At press time it was learned that Nassau County 1
| Eugene Nickerson had issued a telegram to the sewer!
I contracting firms in Massapequa Park to " stop all
Iconstruction operations - where gas mains or
. services are exposed". j
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