Woman, 6 children die in Greene County fire

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07049/763072-85.stm

Another 7 people killed because Gas service was cut off

Cross posted with Latest Pennsylvania and Energy Forums

Around here there are assistance programs to help with utility bills. Do they have nothing like that in SW PA?

Was the gas cut due to non-payment, or was there an inspection issue? We had our boiler shut off after gas lines were replaced to our home, when the gas company employee discovered there was no relief valve on the boiler. Why nobody told us this every time we had the boiler cleaned for the last 20 years is beyond me...

Most time the LIHEAP funds goes directly to the utility provider (Often limited to under $600). The problem is often this is NOT enough to pay the bill in full, so the local Gas provider then cuts the person off anyway. Both Equitable and People's Natural Gas (The Local Gas Providers) are bastards, before either will put you on a payment program you have to pay 1/2 of the gas payment in arrears. People's leave the bill run up to $5000 to $6000 thus the person who can NOT make the monthly payment, has to come up with $2,500 - $3000 dollars, just to keep the Gas Service on. While the PUC prohibits gas turnoffs during the winter months, come April such service is turned off left and right. That apparently what happened here, no money to pay the gas bill, no where to turn to for assistance to get Gas service turned on, thus the resort to electrical space heaters and other unsafe heating methods.

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:gz10zPSQp8MJ:www.puc.state.pa.us/general/consumer_ed/pdf/Act201.pdf+shut-off+in+winter+months&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Your utility company can SHUT OFF your service if
you FAIL to do the following:
PAY YOUR BILL
FOLLOW THROUGH ON PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS
PAY A DEPOSIT, IF REQUIRED
ALLOW THE COMPANY ACCESS TO ITs
EQUIPMENT

Before your service is shut off, your utility company
will take the following steps:
Send you a 10-Day Notice. Once you get the
notice, the utility company has up to 60 days to
shut off your service.
Attempt to contact you three days prior to your
shut-off date.
During winter months (December 1 through March
31), if the utility company cannot reach you at
the time of termination, they will leave a 48-hour
notice at your residence


Winter Termination
Your utility service can be shut off during the
winter months (December 1 through March 31)
without the PUC’s prior approval if you fail to be
a responsible utility customer, and provided that
your household’s income exceeds 250 percent
of the federal poverty level (for customers of
(for customers of
the Philadelphia Gas Works, the income exceeds
150 percent of the federal poverty level). The
utility company will give you notice first and allow
you the opportunity to contact them to make
arrangements to avoid termination. If your income
is low, you may qualify for special programs and
termination protections.


If your service is shut off in the winter (December 1 through March 31), your utility service will be restored
within 24 hours after you pay the bill and meet any other conditions of the utility company. Your service
will be restored within three to seven days after you pay the bill and meet any other conditions of the
utility company during the remaining months.

I'm sorry, but that should be considered criminal negligence when children are in the home. We can place blame on the evil corporations all day long, but parents should also have a personal responsibility to keep their children as safe as humanly possible. Smoke detectors save lives and very possibly could have saved the lives of these six children.

I'm from the Pittsburgh area and have been just sick about this story since yesterday. These deaths seem so senseless.

Like many people you want to make it criminal to be poor. Remember being poor is NOT a crime and the reason this family had this fire was their Natural Gas was turned off for they could NOT pay the Natural Gas Bill. How do you keep your family warm when your monthly gas bill exceeds your Income? That is the problem, a lack of Income but basic needs still have to meet.

However, I have heard way too many of these stories recently where a working smoke detector could have made all the difference. Most fire departments offer them for free and this family even had a fatal fire in their history. I wish someone had reached out to them before this happened. It would have been a lot cheaper to get their gas on than to pay for funerals for seven people.

I believe that this part of Greene County (Like much of Rural America) is serviced by a Volunteer Fire Company. Fortunately it was manned (And most are manned 24 hours a day by Volunteers), so they could respond quickly but not quick enough. Thus the local Fire department may or may not have had fire detectors, we do not know.

As to Fire Detectors themselves, remember the family had tried to use their fire place (or more likely a wood burning stove). The problem with these are they tend to smoke, smoke enough to set off smoke detectors (and especially true if you are using wet wood as this family had tried to use the night before). Thus it does NOT surprise me that the smoke detectors did not work, they probably were disabled for going off every time the family used the wood burning stove of fire place. Thus we return to the problem of the Natural Gas termination as being the real cause of this fire.