A single bumbling National Grid employee worked on two natural-gas hookups before they were involved in massive explosions on Long Island in 2011 and 2012, a just-completed state Public Service Commission investigation found.
National Grid faces maximum fines of between $2 million and $4 million for the bungler’s safety violations and for failing to send him for drug and alcohol testing after the second blast, a PSC spokesperson said.
Officials won’t release the technician’s name, and National Grid won’t say if he’s still on the payroll.
Together, the blasts caused more than $4 million in property damage, officials say. They caused minor injuries to more than 20 people and could be heard miles away.
Investigators say the clumsy technician worked on a gas line in a vacant home at 43 Fourth St. in Brentwood 11 days before it blew up on April 24, 2011, and on a water heater in an apartment on 65 Feller Drive in Central Islip just minutes before it exploded on July 10, 2012.
The Brentwood blast obliterated the house in which it occurred, and severely damaged several nearby homes; the 43 Fourth St. house was owned by a real estate firm, Millennium Homes, which declined to comment.
When the mystery Nat Grid employee went to the empty Fourth Street house on April 13, he should have ensured service was properly shut off, state safety rules say. But investigators found that there was no locking device placed on the line to keep gas from flowing into the building and that the man failed to inspect and test a service regulator, which would control the pressure of the gas flowing into the building.
Despite the violations, PSC investigators aren’t sure what triggered the blast.
In Central Islip, probers found that the National Grid technician failed to follow rules for relighting the water heater, for turning on the home’s gas meter and testing its gas pipes.
“The whole building was leveled,” said David Niederman, a property manager with Fairfield Properties, the agent for the 10-unit 65 Feller Dr. building.
Jamel Latimore, who owned the apartment where the blast occurred, said his tenant mentioned to the worker that he smelled a strong odor of gas. “He just told him, ‘You have to open up the window. Everything will be fine,’” Latimore said.
65 Feller Dr. still hasn’t been rebuilt. Niederman said National Grid has promised compensation, but is “stringing out” the building’s homeowners. “That’s hurting,” he said.
National Grid refused to answer The Post’s questions about the explosions.