Family of Maynard man killed in home explosion sues Eversource: "It could have been any house"
MAYNARD - Three years after a gas leak caused a home explosion that killed Greg Sharrigan, his family is suing Eversource, claiming they were aware of leaks in the area and that they have a defunct system for detecting leaks.
"It could have been any house in the neighborhood, and my Dad would have been the first person there to help," says Greg's son Jason Sharrigan.
"My daughter is 3-years-old now. She was born three months after that terrible day, and I don't know how I will explain any of this to her," adds Ethan Sharrigan, who last spoke with his father on a video call before the explosion.
Explosion caused by turning on a light, lawyer says
The State Fire Marshall blamed the incident on a leak in an underground gas line. Before the blast, Greg called the fire department to report the smell. The Sharrigan family and their attorneys say he didn't believe it was a gas leak, so he went to check the basement.
"The spark that caused this explosion was the simple act of turning on a light," explains Tucker Merrigan, attorney for the Sharrigan family, "According to Eversource, they identified several leaks in the Sharrigan neighborhood in the years 2018 to 2020, just before the 2021 explosion. This includes an underground leak 40 feet from the Sharrigan's home in 2018."
Merrigan calls Eversource's system for checking leaks "systemic disorganization." He says a Department of Utilities investigation found that the leak was not assigned a leak number by their tracking system and was confused with leak records.
"DPU states that that system is, I quote, 'cost-based and unrelated to the factors that would indicate the presence of a corroding decaying and leaking pipe,'" says Merrigan.
Eversource refutes responsibility for 9 gas line explosions
In a statement to WBZ-TV, Eversource called the leak an isolated, tragic incident, however Merrigan claims Eversource is responsible for nine gas line explosions since 2022.
A spokesperson for the company refutes the claim, saying eight of those were not natural gas-related, and the one that one was caused by a third-party contractor striking the line. They also say that the probable cause investigation from the DPU has not been finalized, nor did it demonstrate that they knew about the leak beforehand.
"This all went away three years ago when he dropped me off at work and kissed me for the last time," responds Carol Sharrigan, Greg's wife, "Nothing can ever fix this, but I hope by raising my voice I can prevent this from ever happening again."