The first lawsuit on behalf of the victims of the Merrimack Valley explosions has been filed against Columbia Gas of Massachusetts.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Morgan & Morgan, a contingency firm with 50 offices across the nation, in Essex County Superior Court. Representing attorneys include environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Frank Petosa, head of Morgan & Morgan's complex environmental litigation.

Francely Acosta of Lawrence is listed as the plaintiff in the class-action suit.

"Columbia committed an act of extreme negligence," Kennedy said during a conference call with media Tuesday.

Columbia Gas, Kennedy said, has "the worst record of pipelines in this country." He accused the company is rapidly building pipelines while not tending to their aging infrastructure, citing several explosions of pipelines operated by NiSource and its subsidiaries, including disasters in Western Massachusetts and West Virginia.

The 2012 blast in Springfield leveled a strip club and a day care center and resulted in 18 injured. Columbia Gas reached an $850,000 settlement with the city the following year.

Kennedy accused Columbia of making false promises to its customers, "promising that there's no chance" of such incidents again while not investing in improvements.

The pipelines are some of the oldest in the nation, the attorneys said, and were determined to need millions in repairs last year.

The lawsuit was filed as a class action on behalf of a resident whose home was evacuated following the series of explosions and fires. The suit does not represent those injured or the family of the teenager killed Thursday, who are expected to be represented separated.

"The vast majority of residents in this town are going through the same thing," Petosa told reporters Tuesday. "Some of them couldn't even go back to their homes to get their pets."

Explosions in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover caused upwards of 70 fires, injured more than two dozen people and resulted in the death of an 18-year-old from Lawrence, who died after a chimney fell on his vehicle.

Homes in each community were evacuated Thursday. Residents were allowed to return home over the weekend though are expected to remain without gas utilities for weeks.

Preliminary investigative reports show over-pressurized gas lines as the believed cause of the disaster.

Pressure in Columbia Gas pipes reached 12 times higher than the systems allow for prior to the explosions, according to safety regulators.

"The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has reported that the pressure in the Columbia Gas system should have been around 0.5 pounds per square inch (PSI), but readings in the area reached at least 6 PSI - twelve times higher than the system was intended to hold," Massachusetts Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren stated in a letter to Columbia Gas President Stephen Bryant and Joseph Hamrock, the president of Columbia Gas' parent company NiSource.

The lawsuit was filed less than a week after the explosions, a decision Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera called "shameful" on Tuesday.

Attorneys involved in the class action said it was necessary for them to become involved as early as possible to conduct their own investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced last week that it will investigate the cause of the explosions, though federal officials warned it may take up to two years to determine the cause.

"It's really important to have independent oversight by non-government entities when these types of disasters happen," Kennedy said. He called the disaster a failure by Columbia as well as failure of government regulators.

"The pipelines were not inspected in some cases for 10-15 years," he said, of Columbia Gas. "Somebody was asleep at the wheel."

Columbia joined with local and state officials Tuesday to announce they would provide $10 million to the newly-established "Greater Lawrence Disaster Relief Fund."

"Together, Lawrence, Andover and North Andover are slowly beginning to pick up the pieces," Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday in Lawrence. "There remains a long road ahead."

Rivera, who was critical of Columbia Gas in hours following the explosions, thanked the company on Tuesday.

"Ten million is a lot of money," he said, adding that it's one way he expects Columbia to showcase corporate responsibility.