Emergency officials are urging people to get out of their houses and evacuate their neighborhoods in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover as firefighters battle dozens of gas explosions that leveled some houses and set fire to others over a large area.
"If you smell gas, you gotta get out of your home," Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera told reporters.
State police said any residents of the area with Columbia Gas service to their house should "evacuate immediately." State police are reporing 70 fires and gas explosions.
Police announced at 7 p.m that electricity in each of the three communities was being shut off to aid.
Kimberly Nicollosi was a block away from one house that exploded. “It just went up, it sounded like we were being bombed,” she said with her son Ryan outside the North Andover middle school where residents were evacuated.
“The whole house just shook. I grabbed my kid, my dogs and I just left. It’s really scary," she said.
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