In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: Volunteers help to unload a truck of donations outside the Parthum School in Lawrence, Mass., Friday, Sept. 14, 2018. Multiple houses were damaged Thursday afternoon from gas explosions and fires triggered... (Associated Press) 
  
 Volunteers help to unload a truck of donations outside the Parthum School in Lawrence, Mass., Friday, Sept. 14, 2018. Multiple houses were damaged Thursday afternoon from gas explosions and fires triggered by a problem with a gas line that feeds homes in several communities north of Boston. (AP Photo/(AP... (Associated Press) 
  
 LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) — Investigators worked Friday to pinpoint the cause of a series of fiery natural gas explosions that killed a teen driver in his car just hours after he got his license, injured at least 25 others and left dozens of homes in smoldering ruins. 
  
 Authorities said an estimated 8,000 people were displaced at the height of Thursday's post-explosion chaos in three towns north of Boston rocked by the disaster. Most were still waiting, shaken and exhausted, to be allowed to return to their homes. 
  
 The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to help investigate the disaster in a state where some of the aging gas pipeline system dates to the 1860s. 
  
 The rapid-fire series of gas explosions that one official described as "Armageddon" ignited fires in 60 to 80 homes in the working-class towns of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover, forcing entire neighborhoods to evacuate as crews scrambled to fight the flames and shut off the gas and electricity. 
  
 Gas and electricity remained shut down Friday in most of the area, and entire neighborhoods were eerily deserted. 
  
 Authorities said Leonel Rondon, 18, of Lawrence, died after a chimney toppled by an exploding house crashed into his car. He was rushed to a Boston hospital and pronounced dead Thursday evening. 
  
 Rondon, a musician who went by the name DJ Blaze, had just gotten his driver's license, grieving friends and relatives told The Boston Globe. "It's crazy how this happened," said a friend, Cassandra Carrion. 
  
 The state Registry of Motor Vehicles said Rondon had been issued his driver's license only hours earlier Thursday. 
  
 Massachusetts State Police urged all residents with homes serviced by Columbia Gas in the three communities to evacuate, snarling traffic and causing widespread confusion as residents and local officials struggled to understand what was happening. Some 400 people spent the night in shelters, and school was canceled Friday as families waited to return to their homes. 
  
 Gov. Charlie Baker said state and local authorities were investigating but it could take days or weeks before they turn up answers, acknowledging the "massive inconvenience" for those displaced by the explosions. He said hundreds of gas technicians were going house-to-house to ensure each was safe, and declared a state of emergency for the affected area so the state could take over recovery efforts. 
  
 The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency blamed the fires on gas lines that had become over-pressurized but said investigators were still examining what happened. 
  
 Capturing the mounting sense of frustration, Democratic U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton tweeted that he had called the utility's president several times with no response. "Everyone wants answers. And we deserve them," Moulton said. 
  
 The Massachusetts' gas pipeline system is among the oldest in the country, as much as 157 years old in some places, according to the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy group. 
  
 Columbia Gas had announced earlier Thursday that it would be upgrading gas lines in neighborhoods across the state, including the area where the explosions happened. It was not clear whether work was happening there Thursday, and a spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment. 
  
 At least one story of heroism emerged from the ashes: that of Lawrence police officer Ivan Soto. His house burned nearly to the ground, but after rushing home to check on his family and warn his neighbors to evacuate, he went back on patrol. 
  
 "He actually stayed on duty even though his house was burning down" neighbor Christel Nazario told The Associated Press. "I don't know how he did it." 
  
 The three communities house more than 146,000 residents about 26 miles (40 kilometers) north of Boston, near the New Hampshire border. Lawrence, the largest of them, is a majority Latino city with a population of about 80,000. 
  
 Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera reassured immigrants who might not be living in his city legally that they had nothing to fear. 
  
 "Do not be afraid. Stay in the light. We will support you and your family," Rivera said at a news conference Friday, speaking in English and Spanish. "Lawrence is one community." 
  
 Authorities said all of the fires had been extinguished overnight and the situation was stabilizing. But Rivera criticized the gas utility for poor communications and accused the company of "hiding from the problem." 
  
 On Thursday, Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield described the unfolding scene as "Armageddon." 
  
 "There were billows of smoke coming from Lawrence behind me. I could see pillars of smoke in front of me from the town of Andover," he told reporters. 
  
 Aerial footage of the area showed some homes that appeared to be torn apart by blasts. 
  
 Brenda Charest stood anxiously on her front porch while a crew checked her undamaged home before giving her the all-clear to return Friday. On Thursday, she had come home to a hissing sound in her basement and a strong odor of natural gas. 
  
 "We took off. I said, 'Pack up, we're out of here,'" said Charest, who went with her 93-year old father and cat to a relative's home. "It was scary. We didn't know anything." 
  
 Columbia Gas was sued in 2014 after a strip club was destroyed in a natural gas explosion. The November 2012 explosion in Springfield, Massachusetts, was caused when a Columbia employee accidentally punctured a gas line while probing for a leak. The blast leveled the Scores Gentleman's Club, injuring about 20 people and damaging dozens of other buildings. The club owner and the gas company eventually settled the case. 
  
 Gas explosions have claimed lives and destroyed property around the U.S. in recent years. 
  
 In 2016, a buildup of natural gas triggered an explosion and fire that killed seven people in apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland. 
  
 In 2014, a gas explosion in New York City's East Harlem neighborhood killed eight people and injured about 50. Consolidated Edison later agreed to pay $153 million to settle charges after the state's Public Service Commission found it had violated state safety regulations. A gas leak had been reported before that blast. 
  
 A 2011 natural gas explosion killed five people in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and that state's largest gas utility was fined by regulators, who called the company's safety record "downright alarming." 
  
 ___ 
  
 Associated Press writers Philip Marcelo in Lawrence, Alanna Durkin Richer and Collin Binkley in Boston, Mary Schwalm in North Andover and Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report. ||||| Leonel Rondon was sitting inside a car in Lawrence when a chimney from a house that exploded fell. 
  
 LAWRENCE — They were four young friends, sitting in an SUV parked in a driveway late Thursday afternoon, celebrating as teenager Leonel Rondon talked excitedly about his new driver’s license. 
  
 It was a rite of passage in the adventure from adolescence to young adulthood, and Rondon was savoring the feel of the driver’s seat in Christian Figueroa’s car. 
  
 Suddenly, they heard a bang, and felt the shock waves from one of the gas explosions that ripped through Lawrence, North Andover, and Andover. As stunned as the four friends were, the worst was an instant away. 
  
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 Weakened by the blast, the walls of Figueroa’s house on Chickering Road collapsed, toppling a chimney onto the SUV and ending Rondon’s young life a few hours later at Massachusetts General Hospital. It was the only fatality in the explosions and fires that rocked the Merrimack Valley. 
  
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 On Friday, the family of the 18-year-old high school student reeled from the shock and disbelief. His father stood outside his townhouse on Chestnut Street and embraced friends, neighbors, and loved ones. 
  
 He had dropped Rondon at the Figueroa home to celebrate after the driving test, a family friend said. He later heard of an accident on Spanish-language television. And finally, in a devastating phone call, he learned that the victim, who had died, was his son. 
  
 Inside the family’s house, wailing could be heard Friday. People shuffled in and out with tears in their eyes. 
  
 “The family is broken apart,” said Luis Medina, a longtime friend. “This family just needs to mourn their son.’’ 
  
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 Recalling the events a day later, Christian Caraballo, 19, said that he was with Rondon and their two friends, Christian and Sergio Figueroa, who were all sitting inside the car in the Figueroa family’s driveway and talking. The Figueroas’ mother had just gone inside the house to cook, he said. 
  
 “We heard a noise, then we felt it again and heard it,” Caraballo said. “I seen the front of the house explode to the street.” 
  
 The large brick chimney fell onto the roof of the car, on the driver’s side. 
  
 Rondon’s friends desperately tried to pull him from the car. But the damage was too great, and Rondon’s body was too entwined with the chimney bricks and the battered metal to wrest him free. 
  
 Only minutes before, Rondon had talked excitedly about the new car his mother had promised him, and the prospect of a new job. Now, his friends, bruised and shaken up, felt a whiplash of emotions as the tragedy continued to unfold. 
  
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 The mother of the Figueroas rushed screaming from the remains of the house, shouting that her daughter was trapped inside. 
  
 Caraballo was also stuck in the car. “My legs were pinched due to the impact of the chimney . . . the seat wouldn’t let me out,” he said. 
  
 Police and firefighters soon arrived. The sister of the two brothers suffered leg injuries that required hospital treatment. 
  
 It will be a slow return to normalcy after the fires Thursday 
  
 Medina recalled that Rondon liked skateboarding and playing sports with his siblings, three older sisters and a younger brother. On a piece of notebook paper, Rondon’s family wrote that he was excited about life and cared deeply for his friends and family. He was loving and respectful, they said. He liked to have fun, and enjoyed cars, fashion, and sneakers. 
  
 “Everyone knew who he was,” said Cassandra Carrion, 20. “It’s crazy how this happened.” 
  
 He was quiet, funny, and a loyal friend, she said of Rondon, a math and biology whiz at Phoenix Charter Academy. When Carrion and her sister went to parties with Rondon, he would always keep an eye out for them, she recalled. 
  
 “He’d be the one that would be overprotective and watching out for us, and making sure nobody bothered us,” she said. 
  
 Altabeira Ventura, 39, called her cousin a “good boy” with a bright future. “He had a job interview on Sunday,” Ventura said. “And his mom was going to buy him a car. He was a really good kid, really humble.” 
  
 Miriam Taveras, 69, said the neighborhood was mourning together. Rondon lived behind her and often walked past her front garden, Taveras said. He grew up with her son, Kenny, and she teased him about his sagging pants, so he made sure to pull them up when he stopped by. 
  
 “He always made sure to come in, hug me, and say, ‘Bendición!’ ” a blessing in Spanish and a sign of respect to elders, she said. “Yesterday, he was celebrating. He said, ‘I won! I won, Kenny!’ because my son only has his [driver’s learning] permit.” 
  
 The young men spoke often. 
  
 “My son was really sad last night,” Taveras said. “I tried to calm him down before he went to bed.” 
  
 Carmen Lugo, 50, sat with Taveras under a shady tree near sunflowers and other blooms in the garden. “He’s a local,” Lugo said. “Here we act like we’re all family.” 
  
 In a statement, Lawrence school officials recalled Rondon as “an outgoing, light-hearted, hands-on learner who particularly loved science and excelled in biology and math.” 
  
 “He had just begun his junior year at Phoenix after a successful 2017-18, and teachers recall his drive to graduate as a model to classmates,” the statement said. “He will be greatly missed both in school and at home, and his family, friends and loved ones are in the thoughts of everyone throughout the Phoenix network and Lawrence public schools.” 
  
 Adam Vaccaro of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Cristela Guerra can be reached at cristela.guerra@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @CristelaGuerra . Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at brian.macquarrie@globe.com |||||
A: 
Investigators worked Friday to pinpoint the cause of a series of fiery natural gas explosions that killed a teen driver in his car just hours after he got his license, injured at least 25 others, and left dozens of homes in smoldering ruins. Authorities said an estimated 8,000 people were displaced at the height of Thursday's post-explosion chaos in three towns north of Boston rocked by the disaster, the AP reports. The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to help investigate the disaster in a state where some of the aging gas pipeline system dates to the 1860s. The rapid-fire series of gas explosions that one official described as "Armageddon" ignited fires in 60 to 80 homes in the working-class towns of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover. Gas and electricity remained shut down Friday in most of the area. Gov. Charlie Baker, who declared a state of emergency, says authorities are investigating but it could take days or weeks before they turn up answers. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency blamed the fires on gas lines that had become over-pressurized but said investigators were still examining what happened. Columbia Gas had announced earlier Thursday that it would be upgrading gas lines in neighborhoods across the state, including the area where the explosions happened. It was not clear whether work was happening there Thursday, and a spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.