Huge explosion in San Bruno, California

This is really close to home for me.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/09/BADP1FBJRS.DTL&tsp=1

The Church of The Highlands, mentioned in the article, is where my kids go to school. They were safely home when the explosion occurred, but, I think I know where this is happening exactly and I may know people who may be affected by this. I hope there aren't any fatalities nor injuries.

It's a gas main in the center of a suburb, so the prognosis is very grim. I've been listening to live coverage on the main San Francisco news radio station (click here for the live online stream), they're doing nonstop coverage, phone calls, and emergency info.

reread the article... oo:
they had me at "flying concrete"

Illum said:

I wouldn't be surprised if they lost a couple windows:green:

Click to expand...

It's a natural gas main that exploded, a significant portion of the neighborhood is lost, and the entire area has been evacuated as the fire continues burning.

They are saying it's a 24 inch HP gas main, 30+ houses gone, at least 1 dead

Yeah, 500+psi of flammable gas escaping from a 24" line is a lot more of a problem than other utilities would be.

Hopefully they can get it all put out and get things back in order soon.

Wow ....

I just saw a video of it online - the flames are massive. Hope the firefighters can contain that beast before more lives or homes are put at risk.

Was a few miles away when it started, didnt here the explosion but, the flames were extremely high. Watching the footage on the news now, devastating.
Have to give it up to emergency services, they were there quick!

I think the latest statistics are something like 53 homes destroyed and 120 damaged. At least one fatality reported so far and about two dozen people in the hospital for injuries.

I received an email from my kids' school that they are not opening tomorrow to try to assist the community.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/09/BADP1FBJRS.DTL&tsp=1

Our prayers go out to everyone affected by this.

http://images.kron4.com/images/story.html

Truly devastating. They say a few blocks are a total lost.

I was trying to get to a 7-11 around there, but the nearby areas lost power. A mile away or so I saw a couple dozen emergency vehicles gathered around at the Sears parking lot, at Tanforan mall.

There are now 4 dead and 53 homes destroyed.

It was even mentioned in German Media: http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,716870,00.html

yeah, way close to home for me, I am about 1/2 mile from where the fire was. It was definately a scary night.

Given the magnitude of the devastation, I'm surprised only four people died so far. It must have happened when a lot of people were at work or school.

jtr1962 said:

Given the magnitude of the devastation, I'm surprised only four people died so far. It must have happened when a lot of people were at work or school.

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It happened at 6:15pm local time. Right at dinner time for a lot of families. We could see the smoke plume here at the south end of the bay. The news had reports of the flames being visible from the Oakland hills on the opposite side of the bay.

I fear the confirmed deaths are so low because they haven't gotten to the bodies yet. OTOH- local news has had several stories of close escapes. Since it was a time most people were awake and it was loud, hopefully most people got out.

Some stories: One man heard the explosion, saw the fireball, went the other way to open his garage door, start his car & drive off and made it. But his rear tail light covers & bumper trim melted.... Two other people were interviewed both said they heard the explosion, saw a wall of fire at the front of their houses, headed out the back door and kept running. One suffered burns, but still got away.

I'm sure thoughts, prayers, anything you've got are appreciated up that way right now.

I drove past the area on the local highway (highway 280) at 11;30 PM and the smoke was still very thick in the air. I guess they didn't completely contain it when I drove past. Earlier today, when driving to work, there were no signs that anything had happened. My kids' friends live in the surrounding area and they were giving updates on FB. Definitely scary stuff. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Watch out PG & E. Can you say "BP"? I'll bet the lawyers are arriving by the busload.

Geoff

Ye gods. Okay, so that's two major disasters involving fossil fuels this summer. Think maybe Mother Earth is trying to tell us something?

Just another failure of the aging infrastructure. Nothing last forever.

The official death toll as of this morning is at 4. There are about 3 missing people and there are remains that were found but they are now trying to determine of they're human or not.

I received an email from my kid's school to inform us that there have been several people who work at the school or attend the school who have lost their homes but are otherwise okay. One person suffered third degree burns on the back of his neck from the heat radiation coming from the fireball as he ran for his life. Thankfully, the death toll is a lot less than I had anticipated seeing as how this happend right when most families would be sitting down for dinner and the fire spread really quickly.