Homeowners Still Waiting For Answers 2 Years After Hyde Park Explosion
BOSTON (CBS) – Nearly two years after the explosion that destroyed a home in Hyde Park, the legal fight is still raging and the homeowners are still waiting for someone to be held responsible.
Bob Houser says he is stunned. "It's about responsibility and seeing someone take responsibility for the explosion that leveled our house and took everything that we owned away."
Houser is hoping he will finally be closer to some answers. He came to the hearing Thursday at the Department of Public Utilities to determine whether the contractor, DeFelice Corporation, violated the Dig Safe law by failing to tender proper notification to the system.
The owner of DeFelice and his workers testified about what lead up to the explosion. They argue that the street was improperly marked for digging. They played a recording of the call from DeFelice's General Manager to Dig Safe the day before the explosion asking the gas company to mark the site.
But the utilities say DeFelice never requested the utilities come to Danny Road, where the explosion occurred.
Michael Durand of NSTAR released the following statement: "As we've maintained all along, NSTAR responded appropriately to the Dig Safe request submitted by DeFelice Corporation related to this work. The scope of the Dig Safe work performed at any construction site is based on the formal request submitted by the contractor. In this case, that request from DeFelice did not include Danny Road."
Houser and his partner are now renting, as well as paying the mortgage for the Hyde Park properly, while they wait. Until it's legally resolved and someone is found responsible, the homeowner is responsible.
He say it's difficult to watch the legal maneuvering, explaining, "Everybody in that room, the attorneys on both sides, the litigants, they will sleep in their beds and have dinner in their dining rooms tonight. We don't have that," he says. "We don't have our home to go back to."
He says only one worker ever said he was sorry. "Two simple words: I'm sorry. We've never heard that from anyone else, and if we had that would mean a lot."
So will some answers. Houser says, "We do want this resolved. We live in the greatest country in the world. Why don't we have our house back? It doesn't make sense to me."
