The Springfield gas explosion caused millions of dollars in damage, injured more than 20 people and displaced several dozen downtown residents and local businesses.
Watch video
SPRINGFIELD — More uniquely than perhaps any other city resident, Harley Andrew considers the corners of Chestnut and Worthington streets his entire universe.
At 37, he has worked at his father’s auto repair shop on Chestnut Street since he was 8, and began renting a loft apartment at the McIntosh Building just steps away on Worthington Street in September 2012.
His father’s shop, Tyre Trak, was leveled by the natural gas blast at Scores Gentleman's Club one year ago.
The Nov. 23 explosion caused millions of dollars in damage, injured 21 people and displaced several dozen downtown residents and local businesses. City Building Inspector Steven Desilets has said 62 buildings around the blast site and 150 residential units were damaged.
Also marred by the explosion was Andrew's condominium building. The street view from Andrew's third-floor apartment facing Chestnut Street has been obscured by scaffolding and blue mesh nearly ever since.
His father's shop has emerged as one of the success stories of the disaster: completely restored with Columbia Gas money, and back up and running within three months of the explosion. The progress on his seven-story building, on the other hand, has been slow-going at best, though his north-facing unit suffered little damage.
The contrast is somewhat symbolic of the neighborhood since the disaster, with some tenants and property owners applauding the utility company's response and others decrying it. Columbia Gas quickly revealed an employee had accidentally punctured a gas line under the strip club while probing a leak and became an active player in the public relations effort while fielding an ocean of claims for damages.
Andrea Luppi, a spokeswoman for Columbia Gas, said the company has settled 84 percent of claims by 832 claimants. She declined to put a precise dollar-figure on settlements to date.
"I can tell you we've paid millions and millions of dollars thus far," Luppi said, conceding it was the costliest mistake in the company's history.
The catastrophe occurred in a flagging neighborhood, already dancing on the margins with struggling night clubs, strip clubs, homeless shelters and a pawn shop among its strongholds.
"I'd say the scaffolding went up within a month or so of the explosion. But for whatever reason, they just hit pause," for nearly the entire year, with no advancement until very recently, Harley said of the McIntosh Building – a former shoe factory with brick-walled, high-ceiling units with exposed beams.
Although he misses the unobstructed view for Saturday night “people watching,” Andrew said he is patient and has no plans to leave. But, the evening of the explosion on Nov. 23, 2012, will never leave his memory – nor his father’s.
It was a warm night, the day after Thanksgiving, and they were closing up shop a little early, Andrew's father, Tim, recalls. They spotted some police and fire apparatus and some Columbia Gas vehicles rolling by, but didn’t think much of it at first. They had seen a lot from their perches in the urban auto shop over the years.
“We knew something was very wrong when we saw a bunch of half-naked women running down the street,” Tim Andrew said. “Then we opened up the garage doors and there was an overwhelming smell of gas. No one told us to leave, but I felt some sense of urgency, and we all went home.”
Tim Andrew heard and felt the ripples of the explosion around 5:30 p.m. miles away at his home in East Longmeadow. Harley Andrew was eating a bowl of cereal in his new apartment and felt the reverberations of the nearby blast move through his body.
“It was just the loudest boom I’d ever heard. I looked out the window and saw a cloud of smoke rolling down the street. I didn’t know if half the building was on fire. I put all my important stuff in a backpack and left,” Harley Andrew said.
He and other residents roamed the streets, with police forcing them farther out as minutes and hours went by. Harley Andrew had already seen his family business, however. Total devastation, with uneven, smoking mountains of concrete, brick-battered cars and a carpet of glass littering the site.
“For a few days, I wasn’t sure if I’d be jobless and homeless. It was the weirdest feeling,” he said.
The east side of his apartment building was (and remains) a vista of blown-out windows. A construction Dumpster arrived and a handful of workmen showed up within the last week or two. Property manager Ethel Lee sent letters on Nov. 15 to all tenants and owners advising them to protect their personal effects during the restorations.
Tim Andrew, on the other hand, said Columbia Gas adjusters swept in like white knights soon after the devastation, initially insisting his building be razed but later becoming convinced it could be repaired.
"They were congenial, cooperative ... they didn't say no to anything I asked for," Tim Andrew said, sitting recently in the shop that is a virtual blueprint of the pre-blast shop.
![112113 tim andrew harley andrew tyre trak.JPG]()
11.21.2013 | SPRINGFIELD -- Tim Andrew, left, and his son Harley Andrew stand outside their business, Tyre Trak, at 175 Chestnut St. at the corner of Worthington Street, directly across the street from the site of the gas explosion last November. Their business has been open for a while, but had been closed as a result of heavy damage from the blast.Photo by Mark M. Murray / The Republican He even was able to salvage a few things from the wreckage: a flat-screen television, a hanging plant and even his computer. Encountering the rubble that was his business for 23 years the day after the blast was emotional, Tim Andrew said. He felt like he was standing and staring at the end.
Just a block down at 191 Chestnut St., Paul "Skip" Lessard, of Lessard Property Management, had fewer kind words for Columbia Gas. His five-story office building suffered substantial interior damage and its share of shattered windows.
Lessard said he initially began negotiating with the utility company, but became discouraged.
"They gave us an offer that was ridiculously low – about one-third of what will be required to make the building whole again. They wanted to replace some but not all of the windows, some but not all of the blinds," Lessard said. "Our position was: Look, this was your fault and you should bring us back to 100 percent."
He said he borrowed "quite a bit of money" to make the repairs himself and is now negotiating with his own insurance company to cover what he can of an estimated $1.3 million job.
Additionally, he noted that the neighborhood still looks like "Beirut" with many still-crumbling buildings with hollowed-out windows surrounding him.
The city negotiated an $850,000 settlement with Columbia Gas. The figure included a $650,000 payout to cover property damage and personnel-related costs, and a $200,000 planning grant to help rebuild the surrounding area. Mayor Domenic Sarno lauded Columbia Gas officials' willingness to partner with the city in the aftermath.
Billy Miller, owner of People's Pawn at 363 Worthington St., still has plywood covering its windows and glass-front door. Customers inside on a recent afternoon stood in line with their teeth chattering as they waited to sell jewelry or buy back PlayStations and other items.
"I can't turn the heat on in here; it's killing my business," said Miller.
He replaced his shattered windows the day of the explosion, fearing looters, but had to do the job on the cheap, Miller said. He too said he wrangled with gas company adjusters for months.
"They stalled me. They didn't give me a number; they gave me nothing," Miller said.
Like Lessard, he started over with his own insurance company and hired his own adjuster, but remains disenchanted with the process.
"In my view, the gas company passed the buck and my insurance company passed the buck and probably my adjuster too," Miller said. "The problem now is I'm losing business because the place looks closed. I'm out here smoking a lot, because I smoke too many cigarettes, and I tell people we're open."
His father opened the pawn shop at another spot on the same street more than 30 years ago, Miller said.
![Friends of Homeless Ribbon Cutting for Annex damaged in Gas Explosion]()
09.25.2013 | SPRINGFIELD -- Friends of the Homeless, Inc. held a ribbon-cutting for its renovated annex building at 501-503 Worthington St. that was severely damaged in the gas explosion in November 2012.Photo by Don Treeger / The Republican [file] Farther up Worthington Street, Friends of the Homeless shelter director William J. Miller (no relation to the pawn shop owner) said Columbia Gas was gracious when it paid around $750,000 to repair some damage at the main shelter and renovate a heavily damaged set of studio apartments at 501 Worthington St.
"They placed these tenants while repairs were being made over months," the shelter director said. "Our own insurance company never would have done that."
He argued one of the keys was to hire a contractor well-schooled in dealing with insurance companies and adjusters.
"They paid for every legitimate cost. We never had to argue over any piece of it as long as we could tie the cost to the explosion in a logical way. They made a mistake. They owned up to it. And they paid for the damage they caused, making our building better than it was before the explosion. It definitely caused some extra work on our end. But, that's life," Miller said.
As far as where the whole fiasco started, a vacant lot is the only tangible reminder of the blast at 453 Worthington St. that sent exotic dancers scattering, bricks flying and cocktail glasses and stripper shoes sailing in a plume into the night sky.
A new and improved Scores is not in the cards. A 2003 city ordinance grandfathered in existing adult entertainment spots and prohibited new ones – under any circumstances. Helen Santaniello is the owner of record of Scores and the city's four other nude dancing bars.
Daniel D. Kelly, an attorney for Santaniello and property owner Russell Shaddock, of Springfield, said both parties are still in negotiations with lawyers for the gas company.
"I'm sure both sides are looking to put this to bed. We've come to agreement on several claims but there are still several bigger claims we are significantly apart on," Kelly said, adding that Columbia Gas has thus far refused to pay to reconstruct the building so far.
Luppi confirmed that deal is still in negotiation.
"We're not looking at a specific parcel of land. We contributed $200,000 to assess the city of Springfield and to determine what is the best economic revitalization for that neighborhood," she said.
![Springfield natural gas explosion destroys building, causes widespread damage downtown]()
11.23.2012 | SPRINGFIELD -- The scene of the gas explosion in Springfield on Friday evening.Springfield Fire Department Photo by Dennis Leger While the injured included emergency personnel, civilians, a broadcast journalist and utility workers, the Springfield Fire Department suffered the greatest harm.
Thirteen firefighters were injured in the blast, with two yet to return to work.
Springfield Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant would not address specific personnel issues, citing privacy concerns.
Tragically, one 23-year-old firefighter, Kenneth Murray, who suffered facial burns and other injuries during the explosion, was killed in a car wreck in January.
The explosion was the worst incident in terms of injuries in the history of the Fire Department, Conant said.
Conant said he does not dwell very much on the anniversary of the gas explosion.
“I prefer not to look at it as an anniversary,” he said. "We're moving forward, not looking back."
Staff reporter Patrick Johnson contributed to this report.
