Six months after a Scarsdale home exploded when contractors hit a gas pipe, Con Edison and fire officials appeared before a group of Department of Public Works supervisors Thursday to review key guidelines of excavation work.
As a result of the April accident, the new, 4,000-square foot house at 60 Fayette Road was leveled to the ground.
?There's a lot of utilities that are buried that may be improperly identified, older utilities that may appear abandoned,? says Scarsdale Public Works Supervisor Benedict Salantino. ?So there's a lot of advice these programs are showing us what we need to be cautious about.?
Con Ed has trained emergency response personnel, DPW crews and private contractors about avoiding construction accidents and what to do if a utility line is damaged. Eight months before the explosion, the Scarsdale Fire Department also received the training, so the fire captain of the first unit that arrived on the scene immediately knew what to do.
?He recognized the gas leak, he got all the people, the employees working on that building away from the site,? says James Fenney, of Con Edison. ?And as that happened...the building blew up.?
Scarsdale Fire Chief Thomas Cain says any gas leak must be taken seriously.
?We learned that day how disastrous things could be if something goes wrong,? he says.
During the training session, the utility company honored the efforts of Scarsdale firefighters, police officers and the county's emergency response personnel for their response to the Scarsdale explosion.
For more footage from the ceremony honoring Scarsdale police and fire officials, go to your digital cable box and select iO Extra, Channel 612.