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JFK High School Explosion Prompts Council to Pass Law on Gas Pipe Safety

By Eddie Small | November 17, 2016 9:25am
 New legislation passed by the City Council aims to reduce the amount of gas explosions that occur in New York City.
New legislation passed by the City Council aims to reduce the amount of gas explosions that occur in New York City.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

CIVIC CENTER — The City Council passed several pieces of legislation Wednesday hoping to prevent the devastating and deadly gas explosions like the ones in the East Village and at John F. Kennedy High School.

The legislation is meant to strengthen safety standards for gas piping infrastructure, including a measure that would require the Department of Buildings to perform final inspections of permitted work on gas piping systems.

The package also included a measure sponsored by Councilman Mark Levine that would ban people from working on gas piping systems after Jan. 1, 2020 unless they are licensed master plumbers, have a gas certification, or have a limited gas certification and are working directly under someone with a gas certification.

"Incredibly, now anyone coming right off the street...whether they’ve worked as a plumber, whether they’ve received any training at all, can work on a gas line as long as they are under the nominal supervision of a master plumber," Levine said.

"Now I say nominal because the master plumber doesn’t need to be at the location when the work is being done, doesn’t need to be in the building or even in the city," he continued. "It’s oversight in the loosest sense."

A severe gas explosion that injured three people took place on Aug. 20, 2015 at JFK High School, located at 99 Terrace View Ave., in Marble Hill, after a worker lit a match to see if gas was going through the line.

A fatal blast in the East Village, at 121 Second Ave., on March 26, 2015, was caused by the building's gas line being improperly hooked up, investigators believe. The explosion killed two people and injured 22 others, and four people have since been indicted for manslaughter in the case.

"It’s critical people working on these lines know exactly what they’re doing," Levine said.