This blog presents Metropolitan Engineering Consulting & Forensics (MEC&F) claim management and claim investigation analyses of some of the typical claims we handle
Fire officials say a malfunctioning woodstove caused a blaze that killed a 93-year-old woman in her Massachusetts home last month.
The state Fire Marshal’s office on Thursday released the cause of the Dec. 14 fire in Oxford that killed Josephine Mulvey.
First responders were called to the home at around 7:45 p.m. Efforts to contain the blaze were complicated by a lack of fire hydrants in the rural area. Firefighters had to use a tanker truck to bring water to the home.
Mulvey’s death was not the only woodstove-related loss in the state last year. A Warwick woman and four of her five children died in a woodstove fire last March.
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OXFORD, MASS. — State police continue to investigate the cause of a fatal fire that destroyed a home at 16 Sacarrappa Road Thursday night.
Authorities had not released the victim’s identify as of Friday.
The cause of the blaze is not believed to be suspicious, according to the Fire Department. It was reported by a resident who arrived home as the building was going up in flames, according to Interim Fire Chief Paul Ford. Firefighters found it difficult initially to find the victim because of hoarding conditions in the building.
Two firefighters were injured in the fire. They were treated at a local hospital and released, fire officials said. Two pets died in the fire, authorities said.
On Friday morning, with the roof of the house gone, investigators sorted through rubble. The building is the last home on the Lovett Road side of Sacarrappa Road, which is divided by a closed bridge. In the yard were two large travel trailers, a boat and various other pieces of equipment, along with a large pile of logs. There were numerous “No trespassing” signs around the property.
David and Terry Harackiewicz, who live at 37 Sacarrappa Road, said the closed bridge poses safety problems. They said it has been out for five years and their understanding is the town has no plans to replace it. Mr. Harackiewicz said there is a new pumping station a quarter-mile away near Sutton Road, but it could not be used to pump water directly to the fire because of the closed bridge.
“We’d be a lot more comfortable if there was a hydrant nearby,” he said.
The Harackiewiczes said they did not know the residents of the house personally, but believed a woman and her mother lived there.
At the bottom of the driveway is a poster attached to a piece of plywood promoting the book, “The Rich, the Poor and the Law,” by Josephine Mulvey. Ann Marie P. Mulvey is listed with the state Registry of Deeds as owner of 16 Sacarrappa Road.
How a Mudslide Becomes a Deadly Tsunami of Rocks and Sludge
Mike Eliason/Redux
The mudslides earlier this week that killed 17 people—eight more remain missing—came as a terrifying surprise in the early morning to the enclaves of Montecito and Summerland, nestled into the California coastline just southeast of Santa Barbara. But in most respects, they were also entirely predictable—and predicted.
The Thomas Fire, the largest wildfire in California history, burned almost 450 square miles of the Santa Ynez mountains in late December, a swath of steep, rocky chaparral as big as San Antonio. Then the rains came, a massive winter storm after almost a year of drought. This is the climatic and geomorphological history of the transverse ranges, the “fire-flood cycle”—as a scientific journal article named it in 1935.
The mountains of Southern California burn and then liquefy with terrifying regularity, and, yes, more often than they used to thanks in some measure to climate change and increased human development. Only now, science is starting to catch up to the cycle—to understand how it works and predict when it will be at its worst. And those scientific insights are coming just in time for more and more people to build more and more houses at the feet of those eternally liquefying mountains.
In one sense the mudslides—what geologists more properly call “debris flows,” because they contain both water and a diversity of stuff, from ash to houses—have always been predictable. Wildfires are getting more common, and wildfires make mountainsides more likely to give way. With vegetation burned away, roots that held underlying soil together are gone, and the cover that a canopy might have provided against rain vanishes as well. In Southern California’s chaparral biome, that vegetation adds another factor. Those shrubs and low, waxy plants are adapted to fires every few decades. Their drought tolerance comes in part from a resin-like coat on their leaves that helps retain moisture.
But fire volatilizes that wax, which then coats the soil and ash left behind. “You develop these hydrophobic soils,” says Francis Rengers, a geomorphologist on the US Geological Survey’s Post-Wildfire Debris Flow Team. “It’s like you put a raincoat on the landscape.” After a fire, rain that would have ordinarily soaked into the ground instead bounces off and runs down the hillside, picking up loose sediment and rocks along the way.1
Even the geology of Southern California’s mostly east-west mountain ranges makes debris flows more likely. The region’s frequent earthquakes are evidence of “active tectonics.” Which is to say, those mountain ranges are growing boys and girls, always getting taller and steeper. More steep equals more likely to slide. The rock itself is, geologically speaking, “shattered”—above Montecito, where the Thomas-related slides were, it’s sedimentary and metasedimentary rock, much more likely to erode than, say, Yosemite granite. “It’s rock that’s loose and available to move,” Rengers says.
So these SoCal debris flows are, quite literally, the stuff of literature. The great science journalist John McPhee wrote about them in “Los Angeles Against the Mountains” in 1988, and TC Boyle picked up on the terror of it all in his 2005 short story “La Conchita.” “A vanguard of boulders came sluicing across the freeway, followed by a soupy river of mud. A rock the size of a cannonball thumped into the underside of the U-Haul truck and a fistful of pellets—gravel, I guess—sprayed the side of my car,” Boyle writes. “The mud spread out across the pavement, seething around the tires and underneath the car and beyond, and soon dark tongues of it had pushed across the southbound lanes, too.”
It’s good writing because it’s right. “The debris starts out in a loose state and gets agitated as it goes downhill. As it mixes with water, it attains a liquefied state that allows it to flow almost as readily as water, even though it’s charged with boulders and debris,” says Richard Iverson, a hydrologist with the US Geological Survey. “The leading edge is chock-full of the largest debris, and that part has a lot of resistance. So what you get is a more liquefied, fluid part pushing that resistive front forward, but because you have the front it can become much deeper.”
In other words, the leading edge of a debris flow is a moving dam, a wave of destruction that accretes yet more ammunition as it oozes forward as fast as 10 miles per hour, like the parade in Satoshi Kon’s Paprika—a “bouldery snout,” as Susan Cannon and Jerry DeGraff wrote in 2009, “followed by a more viscous body that transitions to a very muddy water flow.” The big stuff in the front acts like a bulldozer, the pressure of the muck causes even more damage, and the water can literally float cars off the ground and buildings off their foundations.
“Down a steep canyon, the debris flow will be getting bigger and bigger,” Iverson says. “Once it hits flatter terrain or can spread out onto an alluvial fan or into a neighborhood, then it slows down and quits growing.”
Fortunately, in recent years geologists have gotten better and better at predicting which slopes are likely to slide after fires, based on computer models using data from previous flows. So for example, the debris flow team starts with satellite images of burned areas, comparing the green-ness of before images to the blackness of the afters to develop burn severity maps. “That’s called a normalized burn ratio image,” Rengers says. “It’s a quantifiable signal.”
To that, they add soil erodibility data from onsite examination and the National Resources Conservation Service, the soil division of the US Department of Agriculture, combined with information on the steepness of the slopes that burned. “Areas with high burn severity, steep slopes, and high erodibility have the highest probabilities for where debris flows will originate,” Rengers says.
And in fact, the USGS map of debris flow hazards shows the hills above Montecito and Summerland as having a very high probability of sliding. The area was under evacuation orders before Tuesday.
It just needed one more ingredient: Rain. And that happened, too. “For the Santa Barbara County-Ventura area, it takes about a half an inch of rain in one hour for debris flows to occur,” Rengers says. “What we saw in the Montecito area was that there was a half inch of rain in five minutes.”
So it was a coincidental catastrophe. Chaparral starts to grow back within months; the rains came just weeks after fire crews got the Thomas Fire under control. I drove through that part of the state two weeks ago, and the hillsides were black. “It was a really low probability rainfall event, like a 0.5 percent chance,” Rengers says. “That kind of explains the big response.”
What researchers like Iverson and Rengers don’t yet know how to predict is what kind of damage a debris flow will do and where it’ll go. The flatter land between the mountains and the sea, packed with buildings, is in its way more chaotic terrain than the hillsides and canyons. The question is, how far will a debris flow spread? “Once something comes out of the canyon and gets routed down streets and between houses, it becomes challenging to track the momentum and deceleration of the flow,” Rengers says. “We’re pretty confident we understand the physics, but the parameter values, like how much debris should we estimate? What water ratio? It’s almost impossible.”
It’s all under active research; people from the USGS debris flow group are in Southern California already, flying planes over the area and taking measurements. Iverson’s group is working on models for the potentially city-killing debris flows that could conceivably come off of Mount Rainier in Washington.
Fire researchers and geologists know a few things for sure: The 2018 fire season starts in about nine months. The cycle starts again. And what’s true in California is increasingly true everywhere. Fires are more likely to start in the built environment, along the wildland-urban interface where human beings live, and more human beings live there than ever before. Climate change means warmer springs and summers, and possibly increases in precipitation as well. Then the rains will come, and mountainsides will flow like water again.
Tens of thousands of people were without power in New Jersey Friday, and it's apparently due to road salt wreaking havoc on electrical equipment.
PSEG officials said about 40,000 customers were without power at the peak, primarily in northern and central New Jersey.
In Union County alone, about 25,000 customers were in the dark. The outage there is being attributed to weather-related damage to circuits at PSEG's switching stations.
Power has since been restored to many, with about 10,000 people without electricity as of about noon.
Power company officials said the rain and condensation, mixing with residual salt on roadways and walkways, compromised equipment.
There is no estimated time of restoration for those without power in Union County.
This outage is not connected to another in Morris County, in which a blown transformer left more than 15,000 customers in the dark Friday morning. The cause of that incident is under investigation.
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Blown transformer causes power outage in Budd Lake, NJ
Friday, January 12, 2018
BUDD LAKE, New Jersey (WABC) -- A power outage caused by blown transformer appears to have left more than 15,000 customers in the dark Friday morning.
A transformer blew at International Drive and Route 46 in Budd Lake. Some 15,083 customers are without power in Morris County.
The cause is under investigation. County College of Morris posted a delayed opening due to the power outage.
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Mass Power Outages Cause NJ School Closures, Shelters In Place
Fires apparently caused more than 50,000 people
to lose power Friday, causing schools to either delay openings or
declare shelters-in-place.
More than 50,000 people were still without power across New
Jersey at mid-day Friday as schools altered their schedules to deal with
many dark classrooms (see below). At least one shopping mall was in the dark, too.
JCP&L
and PSEG officials said transformer fires overnight in Woodbridge,
Mountainside and on Route 22 in Union County, as well as a substation
issue, were possibly the causes of the outages.
Road salt
reportedly was one culprit, causing damage to PSEG's switching stations,
according to company officials. The rain and condensation, mixing with
residual salt on roadways and walkways, compromised equipment.
The
power companies said they were working to fix the problems, and
expected to have them resolved by mid-afternoon. Heavy rain apparently
was impacting their work, and more was expected.
Menlo Park Mall in Edison, home to a regional Apple store, apparently was in the dark on Friday.
Power company problems were also happening at Newark Liberty International Airport: Schools also were forced to take action. Passaic schools declared a shelter-in-place, as did Cranford,
where the district was experiencing phone and Internet issues Friday
morning. A shelter-in-place typically requires students and teachers to
remain in rooms where they are safe. The order has since been lifted."We are in contact will all schools and all children are safe," according to Cranford police. "No need to go to the schools." Please let us know in the comment section if your school's schedule changed. Lodi also said it had a delayed opening until 9:30 a.m. because the power was out. "There are widespread power outages being reported throughout the city and surrounding towns," said Maryann Capursi,
a Passaic School Board commissioner. "Our students are safe in their
classrooms, and instruction is continuing. The buildings are on a
modified lockdown to ensure their safety. We are in contact with the
city and PSEG, and will provide updates when we have more information."
In Newark,
Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose reported that a number of
Newark schools and neighborhoods have reported power outages due to
today's heavy rainfall. The list of schools experiencing outages include:
Central High School (which has declared an early dismissal)
Cleveland Elementary
Avon Ave. Elementary
Camden Middle Elementary
The following schools in the North Ward have reported some power issues, but are not currently experiencing full outages:
Barringer High School
McKinley Elementary
Brank Brook Elementary
Members of the Newark Police Division will be manning traffic control points in the affected areas.
Authorities
said many streets may be flooded because of the rainstorm and should be
avoided. Because motorists can become stranded by driving through
flooded streets and high water, drivers are asked to avoid these
locations and to use alternative routes. Many of the outages were in Union County, meanwhile, where more than 20,000 customers of JCP&L and PSEG were apparently in the dark.
In Morris County, more than 15,000 residents were without power at one point, with 20 of the county's 39 towns impacted. At 11:45 a.m., many counties were still reporting outages. Here were PSEG's totals:
A fire that engulfed a mobile home in McCormick County, killing four people, did so much damage to the structure that the State Law Enforcement Division is unable to determine its cause.
SLED Spokesman Thom Berry said the source and point of origin of the blaze at 483 Greenfield Road, McCormick could not be identified because of the extent of the destruction it caused.
“In this particular case, we’re listing it as undetermined because of the amount of very heavy damage that was done in the fire itself,” Berry said. “There was just nothing left.”
An investigation is ongoing, Berry said.
“We cannot rule out any possible cause because of the severity of the damage,” he said. “We will be getting the full reports in from the autopsies from the victims, but as of this time, we are going with the cause being undetermined.”
Nathan Tayler Raugh, 25, died in the blaze, along with his three children — James, 4; Jalissa, 3; and Jordan, 2.
Memorials can be made to Raugh funeral expense fund, c/o Harley Funeral Home and Crematory, P.O. Box 777, Greenwood, SC 29648.
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McCORMICK, SC— The mobile home was so hot, the first deputy who arrived at the burning residence early Monday morning wasn’t able to step off the road.
Firefighters arrived seconds later to see the residence at 483 Greenfield Road, McCormick completely engulfed in flames, said Sandy Branch Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ed Slimm.
McCormick County Coroner Faye Puckett said an autopsy showed the four people inside died of carbon monoxide poisoning and burns. She said the four were asleep at the time and, because of the carbon monoxide, didn't wake up from the fire.
Nathan Tyler Raugh, 25, died in the blaze, along with his three children — James Raugh, 4; Jalissa Raugh, 3; and Jordan Raugh, 2.
“When we arrived on the scene, we found the building behind us fully engulfed, with the roof already collapsed,” he said, standing beside McCormick County Sheriff Clarke Stearns during a press conference Monday. “We were informed that there were possibly some victims still in the residence.”
McCormick County School District Superintendent Don Doggett sent an emailed statement Monday saying two students of the district’s Early Learning Center died in a house fire along with their family. Counselors at the districts education complex are available to help family members, friends and staff, the release said.
“A counselor, provided by GLEAMNS, is currently working with students, teachers and staff at the McCormick County School District Early Learning Center,” the release said. “Our most heartfelt condolences go out to the family and our McCormick Community for the loss of our neighbors.”
Along with the four people, Slimm said a dog also died in the blaze. While firefighters worked to douse the flames and get to the people inside, the grass, trees and a utility pole near the mobile home had already been charred in the heat.
“We didn’t know whereabouts in the residence the victims would be, and we tried to do what we could do to best succeed, and we had to attack it from the outside,” Slimm said.
Firefighters found all four people in a rear bedroom of the mobile home, he said.
“I’ve been a volunteer fireman for 54 years, and I’ve been a fireman down here in South Carolina for the last 18 years,” he said, “and this is basically the first fatal fire we’ve had in my fire district since I’ve been here.”
He said there were three smoke detectors in the house. As soon as Stearns heard there were people in the house, he said he called in the State Law Enforcement Division’s arson investigation team, and that while the case is still open, there’s been no indication of foul play.
He said SLED investigators pulled a couple of kerosene heaters out of the building, along with several electric space heaters.
Slimm said one of his firefighters is related to the people who died in the blaze, and lives next door to the residence.
“He got out there right away and there was nothing he could do as far as getting close to the building, because of the extent of the fire,” Slimm said. “They contain the heat very much, and if you don’t get on them right away, they just get fully involved. ... The fire apparently just advanced itself so fast, and we don’t know what kind of other materials were in the trailer that could have caused the heavy heat and so forth.”
Besides the scorched earth around the mobile home, Slimm said the bent and warped I-beams on the residence indicated that the flames likely reached about 1,000 degrees. The heat was so intense that a parked truck nearby was completely scorched.
Piles of warped metal were scattered away from the residence — which Slimm said was from firefighters moving debris to get to the heart of the blaze.
================== NATE RAUGH JAMES RAUGH JALISSA RAUGH JORDAN RAUGH MCCORMICK
-- Nathan Tyler “Nate” Raugh, 25, and his three children, James Anthony
Tyler Raugh, 4, Jalissa Michelle “Missy” Raugh, 3, and Jordan Jean
Raugh, 23 months, died on Monday, January 8, 2018. Nate was born
in Bluffton, IN, and was the son of Todd and Melissa Murdock Raugh. He
was employed by McCormick Tire and was a member of Restoration
Ministries Church of God. He enjoyed horseback riding and go-cart
racing. He is survived by his wife, Brittany King Raugh; his
parents of Greenwood; two sisters, Saralynn Johnson and her husband, TJ,
of Laurens and Jessica Craine and her husband, Jaime, of Greenville;
grandparents, Larry Murdock of Decatur, IN, Allen and Tricia Raugh of
Ormond Beach, FL and Sue and Eric Sherrer of Geneva, IN, and his niece,
Emma Grace Johnson of Laurens. He was preceded in death by his grandmother, Mary Murdock. James
was a typical little boy. He loved dressing up as a firefighter and
loved tractors and being outdoors with his dad. Missy was a prissy
little girl. She loved doing hair, makeup and nails and getting dressed
up. Jordan loved her baby dolls and “cooking” with her little stove and
utensils. They are survived by their mother, Brittany King Raugh;
their grandparents, Jackson Ray “Butch” and Mary King of Troy, and Todd
and Melissa Murdock Raugh of Greenwood; great grandparents, Larry
Murdock of Decatur, IN, Allen and Tricia Raugh of Ormond Beach, FL and
Sue and Eric Sherrer of Geneva, IN; aunts and uncles, MaryAnn and Dupree
Lewis of Troy, Lisa and Charles Dornberg, and Clifton White, all of
McCormick, Saralynn and TJ Johnson of Laurens, Jessica and Jaime Craine
of Greenville and Meme (Mandy) and Papa (Buck) Lamb of Greenwood and
their cousin, Emma Grace Johnson of Laurens. They were preceded in death by their great grandfather, James White.
