• Home
  • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
  • Contact

JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« MU’s Mike Alden awakens from his long winter’s nap and weighs in, sort of, on the Sashu Menu Courey case
The death penalty stew: Too lumpy to swallow »

Feb. 19, 2013: A day that should live in infamy in Kansas City

February 6, 2014 by jimmycsays

Today, with the inevitable, official news that Missouri Gas Energy employees were dilatory in checking for unsafe gas levels inside JJ’s restaurant last Feb. 19, I feel more sorrow than anger.

megan

Megan Cramer

It has been almost a year now since the explosion that leveled the restaurant, inured 15 people and killed 46-year-old Megan Cramer, a server, who along with a few other employees, had remained in the restaurant despite the smell of gas.

Megan is gone, the restaurant is gone, and driving down Belleview, past 48th Street, is no longer a cause for neck craning.

But what remains, primarily, are the thoughts and guilt that must hound the MGE employees who were, obviously, too cavalier about the threat that day. A 125-page report released Thursday by the staff of the Missouri Public Commission says that more than half an hour elapsed between the time MGE workers arrived on the scene and any of them went into JJ’s and an adjacent building to check the gas levels.

In a story posted on The Star’s website this afternoon, reporter Mike Hendricks said: “When the readings showed that gas levels inside the buildings were at unsafe levels, gas workers told occupants to evacuate…but they did not see to it that everyone complied with that order. Firefighters who might have assisted in an evacuation had by then left the scene.”

It has been clear since the day this tragedy occurred that MGE was not the only entity that screwed up. A company called Heartland Midwest LLC, a Time Warner subcontractor, shares in the blame because its workers pierced a two-inch gas line that serviced JJ’s. (Heartland apparently was involved in the burying of communication lines that would serve the new Polsinelli building, which was in the final stages of construction, across 48th Street.)

Then, there was our own KCFD. Firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after the break was reported, but they left after MGE workers assured the firefighters that they had the situation under control. The next day, Mayor Sly James tried to whitewash the fire department’s shoulder shrugging by saying that the fire department “doesn’t do gas.”

That was just balderdash, and everybody knew it. A few weeks later Fire Chief Paul Berardi acknowledged the obvious but tried to make it sound like taking on gas would be a new wrinkle for the fire department. A KC Star story said:

“Fire Chief Paul Berardi said that from now on, the initial dispatch on any call about a possible natural gas leak will include a battalion chief and a fire truck equipped…to monitor gas levels in the air. In addition firefighters will remain on the scene and continue to consult with gas utility experts to determine whether to evacuate an area or building. They will remain there until the risk has been resolved.”

But I come back to the MGE employees. They made another fatal error that day: they failed to shut off the gas at what is called a “critical valve.” (There is some dispute over the practicality of shutting off the valve — see The Star’s story — but logic tells me the first thought should have been to turn it off, no matter how many people it inconvenienced.)

If the gas had been shut off, there’d have been no explosion. Instead the workers tried to vent the gas into the air. That didn’t clear the problem.

But most of all, they failed to check the gas level in JJ’s right away and then make sure everybody left the premises.

They (gotta think the responsibility falls on more than on person) were the ones who ultimately dropped the ball. They are the ones carrying the stinging awareness that Megan Cramer should still be walking among us here in Kansas City.

I’m sure they continue to wake up every morning and ask themselves why, in an inherently dangerous business, they dropped their guard on the afternoon of Feb. 19, 2013.

I don’t know what else to say. It was a terrible, terrible day in Kansas City history — not because of the level of damage or the number of lives lost, but for the catastrophic inaction in the face of real danger.

P.S. Overall, Mike Hendricks did a good job of reporting this story for The Star, but he made a careless, thoughtless oversight: He did not mention Megan Cramer by name. He said, “The Feb. 19, 2013, explosion killed one person, injured 15 and destroyed the building.” I think that every time The Star writes about this case, the reporter or editor should include Cramer’s name and age and consider using her photo. After all, this was only a great tragedy because of the loss of her life. Had she been the 16th person injured, with no loss of life, this story would not be nearly as big as it is. 

Kansas City can never forget Megan Cramer. May she rest in peace, and may God comfort her friends and family. 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

5 Responses

  1. on February 7, 2014 at 7:32 am jenniferm

    Just a cluster of epic proportions by so many people. The biggest one of all was James defending the fire department. That’s not his job. And it should never have been priority one.


  2. on February 7, 2014 at 9:53 am rick thomas

    The only thing more disturbing than the tragedy itself is the length of time it has taken — now nearly a year — to state the obvious and identify the actions of the blameworthy.


    • on February 7, 2014 at 2:13 pm jimmycsays

      I don’t understand, either, Rick, why it took a year for the Missouri Public Service Commission to make its report. It is thorough, however.

      …At lunch today, a buddy showed me just how MGE plans to pay for the court judgments that are headed straight at the utility out of this debacle. Enclosed in MGE bills is a notice for a requested rate increase. If the Public Service Commission approves, which is almost always does, customers will pay $393 a year as the “fixed customer charge” instead of $323.

      The notice says the fixed customer charge is “to compensate MGE for the cost of distributing gas.” The actual charge for gas usage — which varies from house to house — is over and above the fixed charge.

      Naturally, then, we the customers are going to be paying for this MGE-made disaster.


      • on February 8, 2014 at 10:42 am chuck

        I don’t understand why it took a year either. It’s not like they were investigating the IRS.

        Nice follow up Fitz. I had forgotten the explanation of inconvenience with regard to the main shut off valve. There probably are folks who wake up every day knowing they screwed up. I am glad that the thousands of mistakes I have made in my life didn’t kill anyone, but I could see me, after years of working on gas lines that never blew up, becoming cavalier about my duties and making a mistake that would haunt me, like it probably haunts those folks.

        The human condition is consistently inconsistent.


  3. on February 8, 2014 at 11:38 am jimmycsays

    Same here, Chuck…I “mailed it in” a lot of times at The Star, just wanting time and stories to move along routinely. That’s not a winning attitude — and one reason — one of several — I never got very far. Had I been working for MGE for 36 years, instead of The Star, I’m sure there would have been plenty of times I would have waved off the prospect of explosion and just “assumed” everything would be fine.

    Your line about the human condition is so appropriate.



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
    • Contact
  • Archives

    • April 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 567 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Join 567 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: