San Bruno Gas Line Explosion

[Baydestrian]

Called in sick to work Thursday cuz my parents left for Vegas for the wknd. This is what happens 3miles south of me, 3/4 mile from my sisters house at 6pm

I got to a street with a good vantage point about 1 mile away, then drove up to Skyline Blvd and at least 50 ppl were parked along side the street, we were about 1/4 mile away and you could FEEL the heat, it blinded me at first. Then CHP told us to leave and evacuate or be arrested. My dad was in Vegas because of an insurance convention thing and turns out he insures one of the houses that got burned to the ground.

My footage from about a 1 mile away like 10-15 min after it started:

[bcpballer64]

holy shit that is a hell of a mess...i hope everyone is ok. did it blow up the road too?

[Baydestrian]

Yeah the street it happened on, left a huge crater and the house it happened in front of is gone.

3 dead, like 5 ppl burned severely, I think one with over 50% burns on the body and the rest over 40%. A bunch of ppl injured

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTvL3wGDdE

One guy said they had been smelling gas in the area for about 3 wks and PG&E came out and checked and said they didn't find anything...they said after this happened if it was their fault they are going to take full responsibility

Edited September 11, 2010 by wonderbreadSTS

[VaNQuisH]

fireball. watched it on the news

[skittlesRgood]

damn, thats pretty close to home

[Baydestrian]

Yeah bro, I know you stayed in Fremont. I saw vid/pics from Oakland and you could see the fire. One guy said he could see the smoke from where he was at....60 miles away

LOL @ the conspiracy that a Russian missle did this http://whatdoesitmean.com/index1404.htm

Edited September 11, 2010 by wonderbreadSTS

[Ji553r]

wow thats intense! to lighten things up a bit i cant believe chicken hill productions asked you to leave (CHP) lol

[Baydestrian]

Hella sad:

SAN BRUNO, Calif. -- College student Joe Ruigomez’s life changed forever in a matter of minutes. At moment he was enjoying an evening at home with his girlfriend. The next -- his body ravaged by fire -- he escaped his burning San Bruno home knowing his trapped girlfriend was doomed by the flames.

According to a friend who did not want to be named, Ruigomez and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Jessica Morales, were at Ruigomez's home to watch the first football game of the NFL season after his classes Thursday.

On Ruigomez's Facebook page, he wrote in a post dated 4:35 p.m. Thursday, "Finally the NFL season has arrived, gonna be a good year."

But at about 6:15 p.m., the explosion rocked the Crestmoor Canyon neighborhood near the home, creating a fireball about 80 feet high. Ruigomez's home caught fire, apparently trapping Morales inside, according to the friend, a 19-year-old San Bruno resident.

Ruigomez stayed inside, desperately trying to save Morales, but eventually was forced to leave the home to save his own life, the friend said.

He was eventually taken to Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, where he is in critical condition with severe burns, the friend said.

Ruigomez is one of four victims of the fire who are in critical condition at the hospital.

Meanwhile, colleagues described fire victim Jacqueline Greig as a tenacious watchdog who spoke up to protect consumers from soaring monthly gas bills or dangerous pipeline expansions.

A longtime California Public Utilities Commission employee, Greig and her daughter were also killed in the massive blast that ripped through her neighborhood.

Greig, 44, her daughter Janessa, 13, were identified by the San Mateo County Coroner's Office as among those killed in the Thursday blast. A fourth person who died hasn't been identified.

Reached by phone, Greig's father, Agustin Macedo of San Francisco said he was too upset to talk.

"We are so shocked by this," Macedo said, sobbing. "We are traumatized."

Greig lived in a house just yards from the source of the blast, which left a gaping crater behind her home and destroyed dozens of 1960s-era houses and injured nearly 60 people.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the utility that operates the 30-inch diameter line, said it was trying to find out what caused the steel gas pipe to rupture and ignite. Federal pipeline safety inspectors were also on the scene.

Some residents reported smelling gas in the neighborhood over the past several weeks.

Greig, a mother of two, worked for more than a decade at the Division of Ratepayer Advocates, a small unit within the commission that advocates for consumer rights pertaining to natural gas regulations, co-workers said.

Executive Director Paul Clanon told staff Friday morning that Greig was missing following the blast, and had not come to work.

"This is so difficult for us because we're such a small group," said her co-worker Pearlie Sabino. "She does a lot of cases related to natural gas, that's the irony of it."

Colleagues described Greig was a well-respected public servant who played a key role in encouraging PG&E and other investor-owned utilities to adopt consumer and environmental protections.

"She was the lead advocate for natural gas cases, so we worked very very closely with her," said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based nonprofit consumer advocacy group. "We just feel awful about this, for her, for her family and for the division."

VID OF AFTERMATH: http://www.ktvu.com/video/24967154/index.html

[Baydestrian]

I new the gas station near by would have footage, was just a matter of days til someone leaked it...crazy to think that just an 1hr earlier I was right there in the vicinity of where it happened

CCTV of Explosion

Edited September 13, 2010 by wonderbreadSTS