This week marks six months since natural gas fires and explosions erupted across Lawrence, Andover and North Andover. In many ways, those communities are still dealing with the impact of the disaster. WGBH Radio’s Craig LeMoult spoke with Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera at an intersection in the city near homes that were affected and next to a park where many of those families lived in trailers for months. This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Dan Rivera: This is one of the densest parts of the impacted area. A lot of people in this community are low-income families. The night that this thing happened was the night where I came to the intersection trying to get people out of the city. And then later on it was also right next to the South Common, where we had most of the RVs parked here. This this is kind of a nexus of a lot of stuff that went down.

Craig LeMoult: Describe that night and what it was like for you.

Rivera: Well you know, think about — at the same time we were trying to get a handle on what actually was happening, trying to get my kids home and my wife into a safe place. The fire chief was fighting a fire as he was doing overall incident command. The police chief was deploying bodies, getting a mutual aid. There was a lot going on. We were trying to keep our head about ourselves while at the same time, trying to fully understand what was going on. In the end, we had to wait a long time to find out the full impact of it because not even Columbia Gas knew.

LeMoult: What was the impact on this community?

Rivera: To some extent, we're still trying to figure it out. In the end, all three communities reporting a really bad spot. I mean today, we're still dealing with it. Streets, parks, homes exploded all across the communities — fires, the emotional impact. The impact is still being felt. I think it's being exacerbated by the lack of response by Columbia Gas — the Columbia Gas claims process being so driven by their bureaucracy that I think it's made things worse.

LeMoult: They have made quite a number of payments — are you just saying that it's insufficient, the amount that they're reimbursing people?

Rivera: Their understanding of what they should pay and what they should pay is two different things. And if you talked to people whose claims have not been closed yet because they just haven't gotten what they need from them. Columbia Gas wants to argue about small things and expect people to have documentation two and three years back for things that really no one expected to have, because no one expected our community to be on fire. So people who live check to check, when you create a situation where they have to come out of pocket for things, they’re long-term affected. And business is the same way. You know, they're doing 10, 15 percent on a claim for businesses. This is ludicrous.

LeMoult: They did replace a lot of the heating equipment that was damaged. But some of it was just fixed, and that stuff is actually being replaced. They've just released a plan to replace that. What do you think about their plan?

Rivera: Well I think when it comes to inanimate objects, they do a great job. I mean it took them, you know, less than the time expected to put the pipe in the street. It doesn't take much to exchange a stove or a furnace. But I think that last mile is, How do you make people whole? Their problem isn't about the equipment.

LeMoult: A lot of the infrastructure has been replaced in the streets here in Lawrence and in Andover and North Andover. Do you feel better now because of what's been replaced, and what would you say to other mayors about the infrastructure that exists under their streets?

Rivera: Well I definitely don’t feel better. I think that we went from a place of complacency for our natural gas and its use, to a heightened state of awareness with it. That's why I think that any gas company that did what Columbia Gas did should get his license taken away. The reality is somebody lost their life. Three whole communities were put on their heads. And the guy who was in charge gets to retire with all his benefits? No one's been fired? So the sense that there's a — that I feel better about it, I don't. I think the same situation could happen tomorrow.

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WGBH reached out to Columbia Gas spokesman Scott Ferson to ask about some of the issues Rivera raised. Ferson said the utility has settled about 2,300 claims so far, paying out $92 million. He said there are about 200 claims that aren't settled yet, many of which are businesses that haven't been able to prove how much they lost because they were forced to close for months.

“We heard stories of people who had unique situations and weren't able to provide documentation for that,” Ferson said. “And those are the ones that we're trying to review the claims process to be able to make them whole.”

Ferson pointed out on top of a $10 million donation for general disaster relief, Columbia Gas made another $10 million donation to a community fund for business recovery efforts in the Merrimack Valley.