On Thursday September 9, 2010 at approximately
6:15PM PT, a natural gas main ruptured resulting in a deadly
explosion and inferno that destroyed a San Bruno, CA neighborhood.
The
explosion, reportedly heard for miles, sent a massive fire geyser shooting
hundreds of feet into the air and touched of a wind-whipped firestorm
that engulfed nearby homes sending hundred of people fleeing for
their lives. The explosion and fire killed six people (as of 9/13) and
injured dozen's more, destroyed a total of 37 structures and
heavily damaged 7 others.
The explosion was so powerful that it knocked out
water service in the area leaving fire personal having to shuttle
water from outside the area further complicating firefighting
efforts. The six-alarm firestorm brought resources from dozens of
police and fire agencies throughout the Bay area to
assist.
To donate cash to
victims via the American Red Cross, call 800-RED-CROSS and specify
"San Bruno Fire."
(Scroll down for videos)
+ San
Jose Mercury
News: San Bruno Fire - Full coverage of San Bruno explosion
and fire including the latest news, amazing photos, and
more.
+ San
Bruno Explosion Fire Map - San Jose Mercury News put together a Google Map containing a
multi-colored overlay detailing the epicenter of the explosion and
fire and the homes destroyed. Lots of location information here.
+ San
Bruno Fire Photo Gallery - one of many amazing photo galleries provided by
San Jose Mercury News that show the devastation and destruction cause by
the gas explosion and firestorm.
+ Scanner
Audio:
San Bruno Fire Radio Traffic of Incident - (1hr:08min, 49MB)
Audio recording of "Crestmore IC", the incident
command name for the explosion and fire (one of several incident
command names heard in recording including "Glenview
IC", "San Bruno IC", and "North Branch
IC"). Dispatch of incident occurs at 1min:30sec into clip.
Fire personnel not only had to deal with finding
and rescuing burn victims, but the fire itself with no water in
the hydrants because of a broken water main caused by the
explosion.
In addition, there was extreme heat, one Battalion
Chief reported (in news interview) that the "windshield on
the first engine in cracked when they got within a hundred
yards". There were also many false-alarm house fires that
fire personnel responded to in the surrounding areas.
At around 9:00min, a Battalion Chief reports that
"it appears there's a plane down in the neighborhood,
multiple structures on fire and we have a fireball still coming
out". Later, another Battalion Chief can be heard
yelling over the radio "stop your engine, we have no water
supply".
NOTE: The audio recording appears to be of several
scanner feeds broadcasting several different streams including
fire, police, and air-traffic control so if you not used to
monitoring multiple scanners and once, try not to get too
confused.
| Information
on Gas Main Infrastructure
|
The following are some facts that appear in "Know
the Dangers: Natural Gas Emergencies" from my "Police
Scanners & Emergency Preparedness" section on Police-Scanner.info:
"Natural gas
main ruptures pose a significant threat to life and property due
to the volatile nature of the gas itself. The potential risk of an
explosion from a gas main break is extreme and would be
devastating for anyone in the vicinity."
Some facts about
Natural Gas:
- Natural gas is delivered to about 170 million American
consumers through a 1.5 million-mile network of underground
pipe.
- There are a total of 450,000 producing natural gas wells.
- There are 125 natural gas pipeline companies.
- More than 1,200 gas distribution companies provide gas
service to all 50 states.
- Natural gas provides about 23 percent of the U.S. energy
consumption.
You can read the entire report here.
