In 1970, a woman died and her husband was so badly burned he died days later.
LEWISTON – In February 1970, a thunderous explosion blew apart a Pettingill Street home killing a woman inside and leaving her husband badly burned. Days after the blast, Dr. Robert Wiseman Jr. died from his injuries.
The blast that claimed the lives of Dr. Wiseman and his wife, Helena, blew apart their home at 55 Pettingill St. The force of the explosion hurled a 40-feet wide house wall across the lawn.
An investigation into the Feb. 4 explosion went on for more than a month.
The findings more than three decades ago were strikingly similar to what appears to have caused the Hotel Holly on Main Street to explode last week.
A Massachusetts consulting firm concluded the 1970 explosion was caused by natural gas leaking from a line running underground near the Wiseman home.
Experts said stress from the frozen ground caused the line to break in a period of intense cold with little snow cover. Over a period of hours, the gas seeped into the basement of the Wiseman home where it was ignited by an electrical source about 6:30 a.m.
Investigators said gas had leaked from an outside line even though the Wiseman’s had no gas appliances in their home. The home burned to the ground after the blast.
At the Hotel Holly last week, investigators said natural gas from a broken, underground line had collected in the basement of the building. Early findings revealed that the line most likely snapped because of pressure from the cold ground.
Investigators said natural gas found its way into the old hotel basement even though gas service to the building had been disconnected 35 years ago.
Last Monday, Jan. 12, the Hotel Holly blew apart when the gas was somehow ignited. The blast sent a cloud of debris into the air and the concussion was heard miles away. What remained of the hotel later caught fire and burned to the ground.
In the Wiseman blast, investigators spent six weeks investigating before they released their findings. This week, investigators plan to send the section of natural gas pipe from the Hotel Holly to an independent testing lab to determine why it failed.
One key difference in the explosions was the severity of injuries. On Feb. 4, 1970, the body of 66-year-old Helena Wiseman was found in the rubble of her home a few hours after the blast. Her 73-year-old husband – Lewiston’s health officer until his retirement in 1958 – died two days later at a city hospital after suffering second- and third-degree burns.
At the Hotel Holly last week, five people suffered mostly scrapes and bumps from the explosion. They were treated and released from the hospital the same day.
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