Flammable Chemicals Flushed Into Sewer Suspected as Cause of House Explosion

By Mary Mitchell

Published on June 30, 2006

Robert Donnelly, 39, and his two children were watching a night Red Sox game when a strong odor similar to nail polish remover prompted him to go down to the basement to check. He then told his children to leave the house immediately, and before he could get out, the blast knocked him through a back door, burning his face.

The house shook on its foundation and was left severely damaged. The children were unharmed, and Donnelly was released from a local hospital the next day with burns, cuts and bruises. His wife Angela Ramos was at her job the evening of the explosion.

The Quincy Fire Department reported that apparently an explosive gas caused the blast, and that no natural gas utility line runs to the home. A flammable solvent or other chemical(s) dumped into the sewer system at an unknown location is suspected as the cause of the explosion.

Donnelly later stated that he was happy to be alive, but he expressed his dismay that the home he had worked for his whole life was destroyed in a few minutes.

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