A gunshot, fired by the man who died in an Oneonta house explosion, is being blamed for causing conditions that led to the blast.
Emergency response officials announced more details at a public meeting Monday, Dec. 18 about what caused the Dec. 9 explosion that leveled a two-story house at 18 Richards Ave. in the town of Oneonta and damaged several others.
Otsego County Undersheriff Cameron Allison, speaking on behalf of the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control and the sheriff’s office, said Monday that after numerous interviews and review of the evidence from the scene, investigators determined the home’s resident discharged a firearm within the house, which damaged a branch of the residential gas line and resulted in a gas leak.
Allison did not say what day or time investigators believe the gun was fired, but that that leak caused multiple reports of an odor of gas along Richards Avenue during the day on Dec. 9.
The likely ignition source for the blast was the furnace, he said. The case remains open for investigation.
The resident, 60-year-old Desmond D. Moan, was found dead after the explosion.
The house next door at 20 Richards Ave. subsequently caught fire, while the house at 16 Richards Ave. was heavily damaged from blast debris.
Town Code Enforcement Officer Paul Neske, who facilitated the meeting, said Monday that at the last count, there were 18 houses affected by the blast, which displaced 26 adults and six children.
He said that the town is still getting evaluations from Herrmann Engineering on the affected houses, so there are no numbers yet on how many people may be permanently displaced nor how many homes may have to come down.
NYSEG responds
Tom Scappaticci, senior director of gas operations at NYSEG’s parent company Avangrid, said Monday that NYSEG inspectors had visited Richards Avenue twice on Dec. 9 prior to the explosion.
He said NYSEG received a call at 8:15 a.m. Dec. 9 from a passerby for an outside odor complaint near 24 Richards Ave., leading gas company technicians to investigate at 22, 24 and 26 Richards Ave. as well as two properties across the street. They found two small leaks at gas meters.
“There was nothing that would have contributed to what happened later in the day,” Scappaticci said.
Later in the day on Dec. 9, at 4:37 p.m., NYSEG received another call of an outside odor, this time at 14 Richards Ave. in the rear of the property.
The NYSEG technician arrived around 5:15 p.m. and went to 14 Richards Ave., where he spoke with the homeowner and was beginning to conduct his investigation when the explosion occurred.
“Our fitter that was on site was actually hit by debris during the course of the explosion,” he said, “but immediately went into ‘make safe mode’ and was looking to evacuate folks from nearby homes.”
The fitter then immediately called in the explosion and fire to NYSEG’s central dispatch center.
“We sent everybody that we had available and folks from other districts nearby to assist in in the investigation,” he said. “We went home-by-home, found no other indications of gas inside customers’ homes.”
NYSEG then surveyed the area, doing a series of leak investigations, and deemed the mains, services and facilities to be safe and in normal operating conditions.
Scappaticci said NYSEG plans to distribute residential methane detectors to the folks in the area “as an added safeguard, and also as another measure of comfort as you begin to return to your homes.”
He added that the detectors should arrive in about two weeks.
More from Monday’s meeting
About 50 community members attended Monday’s meeting, which began at 11 a.m.
A few attendees said that the meeting time was inconvenient for residents who had to work during the day.
Neske said it was the only time representatives from all of the emergency response agencies were available to convene. The meeting was video recorded and broadcast via Facebook live stream on the Oneonta Town Clerk’s page.
Neske described the unified command process during a crisis, where multiple specialists met twice daily to share information and make decisions.
He emphasized the importance of timely and accurate communication with the public, despite some hiccups, and expressed gratitude to the assistance provided.
He added that there will be an after action review, but no formal published report, on the response efforts.
Otsego County Board of Representatives member Michelle Catan, R-District 4, expressed gratitude for support. She announced a free dinner for affected families 5:30 p.m. Dec. 21 at the American Legion, 279 Chestnut Street, as well as and another prayer vigil at Elm Park Methodist Church at 6 p.m. Dec. 21.
State Sen. Peter Oberacker, R-District 51, and state Assembly Member Brian Miller, R-District 122, shared words of comfort and appreciation for local leadership.
Watch a video of the meeting online at www.facebook.com/RealTownOneontaNY.