Take responsibility for explosion, Greenwood business owners tell PSE

Greenwood business owners want Puget Sound Energy to take full responsibility for the explosion that destroyed several businesses back in March.

Listen: 911 calls after explosion

A conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, where a group of neighborhood leaders and Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien plan to shed light on the problems the people affected by the explosion face.

The neighborhood leaders are petitioning PSE to reimburse the business owners for what they lost in the explosion, in addition to the $3.2 million in penalties recommended by state investigators for 17 pipeline violations that were found in connection with the explosion.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission found that a gas line located between two businesses in the Seattle neighborhood was improperly abandoned and was damaged by people who were illegally storing their belongings in the access space, commission spokesperson Anna Gill previously reported.

The gas line was located between Mr. Gyros and Neptune Coffee in the 200 block of North 85th Street, near Greenwood Avenue North. It was abandoned in 2004 during a project by Puget Sound Energy but they didn’t confirm the contractor finished disconnecting it, according to a report by the commission.

The damaged line eventually released gas into one of the buildings. The result was an early-morning explosion heard miles around that injured nine firefighters. Three businesses were destroyed and “nearly three dozen others” were damaged, The Seattle Times found.

A news release from O’Brien’s office states that PSE has not offered “any compensation” to the business owners and “hasn’t changed their standard operating procedure that would otherwise create safer conditions.”

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