Lives Lost in Deadly San Bruno Explosion/Fire

[SFFemmePrincess]

Elizabeth Torres, mentioned in the below article, was my sister-in-law Faye's grandmother. Her house is completely destroyed and other members of her family are in critical condition. Please send your thoughts, prayers, energy. Today is a sad day...

Search for bodies in deadly San Bruno PG&E gas line explosion ends

By Sandra Gonzales, Mike Rosenberg and Sean Maher
Bay Area News Group
San Jose Mercury News
Posted:09/10/2010 06:47:41 PM PDT

In the devastating aftermath of one of the worst disasters in PG&E's history, the death toll in the huge fireball that torched a San Bruno hillside community climbed to four Friday as fire crews finished their search for bodies in the smoking rubble and scrutiny intensified on what caused Thursday's natural gas line explosion.
The wide swath of destruction turned Crestmoor Canyon into a moonscape with collapsed homes -- 37 destroyed and eight seriously damaged -- burned eucalyptus trees and a massive water-filled crater marking the site of the explosion -- 50 feet wide and 40 feet deep.
"The fire burned everything -- it's down to the ground in some places," San Bruno Fire Chief Dennis Haag said. "It's pretty amazing. I've been in this service for 31 years. I've never seen anything like it. It's devastating."
Along with the horrific images, stories began to emerge of the heroic, the dead and the injured, many still trying to reach loved ones and wondering whether their homes still stood.
Among the dead were Jessica Morales, 20, Jacqueline Greig, 44, and her daughter, Janessa Greig, 13, all of San Bruno, according to the San Mateo County Coroner. Also feared dead is Elizabeth Torres, 81.
In a horrible coincidence, one of the victims, Greig, was a longtime analyst at the California Public Utilities Commission, the very agency that regulates PG&E. The PUC notified its staff on Friday of her death in an e-mail. She was also a member of the natural gas committee on the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates.
Torres, who lived a few doors from the blast site on Claremont Drive, had been waiting Thursday for PG&E to visit her home to light her gas stove, which had not been working. Two of her daughters were at the home when the explosion destroyed Torres' house.
The daughters are in the burn unit at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco, according to Bill Arnold of Petaluma, whose wife, Sandy, was injured in the blast.
The mother of nine children, Torres had her hip replaced twice and walked with a cane, but tell her "you were going to a casino and she'd be with you in the driveway," Arnold said.
On Morales' Facebook page, friends posted memories of a "strong" young woman, yet expressed shock that she was gone.
Her boyfriend, Joseph Ruigomez, 20, was at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco on Friday suffering from second and third degree burns, one of 52 injured in the fire, including eight in critical condition.
After flames filled his home Thursday night, Ruigomez ran to a neighbor's house and collapsed on the lawn.
"Joseph ran out of there fast when he heard the noise," said his uncle Robert Ruigomez of San Bruno, who was waiting at the hospital with the family on Friday. Even though he was burned, he ran back into the house for his girlfriend. "By then, the house was engulfed."
The search for victims intensified at daylight Friday as teams with 12 cadaver dogs combed through Crestmoor Canyon, with the fire all but contained and officials wrapping up their search Friday afternoon.
Thus far, the National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the cause of the Thursday night explosion and fire, while the California Public Utilities Commission is heading up the state investigation.
Authorities are looking into the insulation of the pipeline, its pressure and what safeguards were in place, if any. The investigation is expected to take up to 18 months.
PG&E President Chris Johns said crews worked through the night to make sure the area was safe and that all gas was removed from the line that ruptured as well as related lines. He said the pipe that ruptured was 30 inches in diameter and about 40 to 50 years old.
"We haven't been able to get close enough to the actual source to be able to determine exactly why this happened, but we are trying to do that," he said.
Johns said the company also continues to look into reports about residents smelling gas last week.
Haag said because it's a complex system, it took 60 to 90 minutes to shut off the gas after the explosion occurred about 6:15 p.m.
The most seriously damaged areas were the 1600 and 1700 blocks of Claremont Drive, the 900 block of Glenview Drive, the 1700 block of Earl Avenue, the 1100 block of Fairmont Drive and the 2700 block of Concord Way.
Officials offered their own grim assessment of the destruction, and even President Barack Obama called to offer his condolences to Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, who declared the scene a state of emergency and signed an executive order giving aid to victims.
"This is a horrific tragedy," said Maldonado, who is acting governor while Arnold Schwarzenegger is in China. "Our hearts go out to those impacted by this horrible disaster. Without warning, many of these people's lives have been changed forever."
San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane somberly addressed the community Friday.
"The sun is shining over there, but there is still a dark cloud hanging over the city," he said.
Officials said residents may be able to return to their homes as early as today.
Jean Fraser, San Mateo County Health Systems chief, said 15 of those injured were taken by ambulance to nearby hospitals, including four sent to the burn center to Bothin Burn Center at St. Francis Memorial in San Francisco. Thirty seven other injured people arrived at hospitals on their own.
Doctors, meanwhile, worked through the night, treating victims who ranged in age from their 20s to 50s.
Dr. Michael Kulick said all of the victims were sedated and are on breathing machines. The most urgent concern for now, he said, is to prevent infection. In coming days, the patients will all be undergoing skin grafting. He said it could take a year or two for the victims to fully recover and that doctors will have a better idea of long-term prognoses later in the weekend.
Haag praised the joint effort of state and local firefighters.
"As devastating as this was, it could have been so much worse," he said, noting that four firefighters who suffered from smoke inhalation had already been released from the hospital.
U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, who toured the site Friday, called it "a very serious crisis." She said her office is seeking aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and asking that the site be declared a national state of emergency. Her staff said that weighing in the balance is the number of homes that were damaged or destroyed and how many homeowners were uninsured.
If FEMA aid is granted, she said residents would benefit from an array of services, from housing to medical care to small business loans. Speier also asked for all state insurance companies to create a desk at the evacuation site and begin helping residents file insurance claims.
Meanwhile, all eight schools in the San Bruno Park Elementary District closed Friday. District leaders are checking to see if the schools sustained any possible damage from the large fire and assessing whether classes can resume Monday.
At Capuchino High, the mood was somber. "Everyone is concerned about their friend or neighbor," San Mateo Union Board President Dave Pine said. "There are a lot of upset kids trying to process this terrible tragedy."
On Friday, the Red Cross truck at the Bayhill Shopping Center provided emergency medicine, food and water and directions to the two shelter locations. So far, the community has responded with an outpouring of support, including businesses that provided cases of bottled water and dozens of pizzas.
Still, many victims of the blast remained visibly shaken.
Roger Ugaitafa, 39, said his 87-year-old grandmother was badly hurt when her house caught fire.
"She's in the hospital now, with burns on 20 percent of her body," he said. "They have her on a big breathing machine. She's 87 years old, so there are complications."
He remained hopeful for her recovery. As for her home, he said, "It's wasted, gone."
Bay Area News Group staff writers Linda Goldston, Sean Maher, Mark Gomez, Tracy Seipel, Lisa M. Krieger, Diana Samuels and Bonnie Eslinger contributed to this report.
TIPS AND TOWNHALL MEETING
Tips: The California Public Utilities Commission has set up a toll-free number and e-mail address for tips to help the investigation: 800-789-0550 or SBFire@cpuc.ca.gov
Town Hall: 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Roberts Catholic Church at 1380 Crystal Springs Road in San Bruno.

[AtLast]

It appears that negligence with maintenance may be responsible. This is not the first time this has happened here in CA.

PG&E pipeline safety record called into question following San Bruno explosion


PG&E pipeline safety record called into question following San Bruno explosion
By Paul Rogers and Steve Johnson


The explosion that devastated a San Bruno neighborhood captured the nation's attention, but it is hardly the first tragedy involving a Pacific Gas & Electric natural gas pipeline

Between 1986 and last month, PG&E had 132 "significant incidents" with its natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines, according to records from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Those incidents resulted in 18 fatalities, 64 injuries and $41 million in property damage. They were caused by a variety of problems, including pipeline corrosion, failed valves and excavation damage by contractors.

"It's a lot of deaths, which concerns me. But they are a big company, too. The technology is to a point where you ought to be able to prevent all of these deaths," said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit that monitors pipeline safety.

PG&E officials left key questions unanswered Friday about Thursday's explosion of a 30-inch, steel transmission pipe, including how company crews responded to earlier reports of a gas leak and when the 54-year-old pipeline was last inspected.

Separate from its accident record, the company also ran afoul of state regulators two years ago for its training.

In May 2008, the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees natural gas pipelines, found in an audit that PG&E had not properly trained its field representatives on the use

of gas-detection equipment and grading leaks outdoors.

And this May, a consumer group disclosed internal PG&E documents that revealed shortcomings in the way the company inspected its gas-distribution lines from 2004 to 2007.

"There's a history here that raises some pause and concern that this could be an ongoing characteristic of their maintenance," Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, said Friday.

"Where else in the state do we have conditions existing that are similar to San Bruno?" he asked. "Is this the first of many tragedies?"

The company operates 48,580 miles of natural gas pipelines. Many are close to earthquake fault lines and pass under neighborhoods where residents may have no idea of the pipes' existence.

Thursday's explosion is believed to be the worst pipeline accident in PG&E history. The most recent pipeline death attributed to PG&E errors occurred less than two years ago.

In December 2008, Wilbert Paana, 72, was killed in Rancho Cordova, near Sacramento, in an explosion sparked by a natural gas leak at his house. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates pipeline accidents, concluded that the leak was the result of an inadequate piece of polyethylene pipe that PG&E crews installed in 2006, and that it took PG&E 2 hours and 47 minutes to send a properly trained crew to the house when neighbors reported strong smells of gas. The first PG&E technician on the scene did not call the fire department or place warning tape around the home, the NTSB found.

Concerns also grew Friday about what work PG&E crews might have done in the San Bruno neighborhood after residents reported smelling gas several weeks ago.

"PG&E came out," San Bruno resident Tim Gutierrez told KRON-TV on Thursday. "I was working in my garage and they told me to shut the door, shut the garage, go inside, that there was really heavy, strong gases. After being in the neighborhood for a little bit, they packed up and left."

State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, announced that his public safety committee will hold hearings about the explosion.

In a statement Friday, PG&E said, "If it is ultimately determined that we were responsible for the cause of the incident, we will take accountability."

Added PG&E President Chris Johns in a separate statement: "On behalf of our 20,000 men and women, our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by yesterday's terrible tragedy."

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, PG&E reported it has $992 million in fire insurance. The company's stock fell $4.03, or 8 percent, to close at $44.21.

Among the questions PG&E left unanswered Friday:


How many calls it received from neighbors reporting a potential gas leak before the explosion.


What repair work, if any, its crews performed before the explosion, and when.


When the pipeline, which was built in 1956, was most recently inspected.

Federal law requires natural gas transmission pipelines to be inspected at least once every seven years. Crews use equipment that can detect cracks, leaks and other flaws inside pipes.

"Our lives are literally in PG&E's hands, and that's scary," said Mark Toney, executive director of the consumer group The Utility Reform Network.

"The previous explosion in Rancho Cordova should have been a wake-up call not only to PG&E but also to the California Public Utilities Commission," Toney said. "If customers can't depend on PG&E to respond quickly and effectively to potential safety problems, it falls on the CPUC to step up."

In legal papers submitted to the PUC in May, Toney's group criticized PG&E, saying it has conducted shoddy checks for possible gas leaks in recent years.

The group cited internal PG&E documents that found "a significant number of employees" conducting routine checks for leaks in distribution lines from 2004 through 2007 had been improperly trained and that some records associated with the checks had been falsified, although the PG&E documents didn't elaborate.

As a result of the problems, PG&E made a number of changes in how it does such inspections and has been rechecking the lines at a cost of $103 million, according to TURN.

Julie Halligan, deputy director of the PUC's consumer protection and safety division, which is investigating the San Bruno disaster, said she was aware of PG&E's past leak-checking problems and that her agency had recommended the utility make improvements.

But she said she wasn't sure how well and how often PG&E had monitored its transmission pipelines, adding that her division had not yet obtained the company's inspection records.

Mercury News research director Leigh Poitinger contributed to this report. Contact Paul Rogers at 408-920-5045.



http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_16045866

[SFFemmePrincess]

The death toll rises. There are now 4 people dead and 2 people are still unaccounted for. Please send prayers for my family...