Two hours after a street crew by chance struck a pure fuel line within the unincorporated Ashland neighborhood close to Hayward earlier this month, Pacific Fuel and Electrical Co. had lastly stopped the leak.
Street staff had left the quick space, however no official evacuation orders had been issued, regardless of the likelihood {that a} harmful quantity of extremely flamable fuel remained trapped in close by houses.
Minutes later, a violent explosion erupted, obliterating a number of houses and injuring six folks, sending three to the hospital.
The sequence of occasions has consultants questioning whether or not native authorities and PG&E, which has a troubled historical past of gas-safety incidents, took the suitable steps to maintain residents secure.
Robert Corridor, a just lately retired director of pipeline investigations for the Nationwide Transportation Security Board, faulted the utility for failing to cease the leak extra rapidly. He mentioned that even after PG&E shut off the discharge, utility crews and native fireplace officers, who additionally responded to the broken pipeline, ought to have been conscious that fuel might have remained trapped underground or inside buildings.
“I do believe they should have been getting people out of the homes for safety’s sake,” mentioned Corridor, who has overseen previous federal investigations into PG&E.
The explosion is the newest in a collection of gas-safety incidents involving PG&E, evoking reminiscences of a 2010 blast in San Bruno that killed eight folks and destroyed dozens of houses after an growing older pipeline owned by the utility ruptured. Investigations into these incidents discovered sluggish response instances and different operational failures.
In response to the San Bruno tragedy, the California Public Utilities Fee, which is investigating the newest explosion, started fining fuel corporations and utilities for violating state and federal fuel security guidelines.
Over the previous decade and a half, the company has cited PG&E, which serves 4.5 million Northern California fuel prospects, 19 instances for fuel violations totaling greater than $35 million. For comparability, Southern California Fuel Co., which serves greater than 20 million prospects, has been cited six instances, with $6.2 million in penalties.
The fee fined PG&E $1.6 million after an worker didn’t observe the proper process for cleansing a pipeline in Napa County in 2022. That incident resulted within the demise of a utility employee. PG&E was additionally fined $600,000 for permitting an growing older copper fuel pipeline in San Jose to corrode, resulting in a 2018 explosion after a resident lit a match of their toilet.
In 2019, the utility responded to a fuel leak that, just like the current Alameda County accident, ignited after a contractor minimize by means of an underground line, inflicting $10 million in property injury. In a subsequent report on the incident, the NTSB faulted PG&E for failing to rapidly find the valves wanted to close off the fuel launch.
“It took PG&E about an hour to identify the specific locations of the valves that needed to be isolated,” the company wrote.
Corridor mentioned he was conscious of at the least 4 NTSB investigations into PG&E, out of round 150 nationwide since 1970.
PG&E didn’t reply to questions concerning the previous incidents.
An preliminary report on the Alameda County explosion by the NTSB, which is continuous to analyze the incident, discovered that when the blast ignited at about 9:35 a.m., PG&E was repairing the fuel line after it had been broken at about 7:30 a.m. by a 3rd get together doing grading work for a county-contracted street enchancment challenge.
In accordance with PG&E, the utility recognized two separate leaks alongside East Lewelling Boulevard, stopping one at 8:18 a.m. and the opposite at 9:25 a.m., simply earlier than the blast.
The Alameda County Fireplace Division mentioned it arrived on the location shortly after the rupture at 7:50 a.m. The division mentioned it “checked in with authorities on the scene” and was “cleared” by officers on scene a couple of minutes later. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned it was not contacted concerning the leak till after the blast. County officers didn’t reply to questions concerning the leak.
Corridor mentioned that, given the lengthy period of the leak, utility crews and first responders ought to have rapidly sought to find out whether or not fuel remained trapped underground or inside close by buildings, including that pure fuel typically loses its identifiable odor after seeping by means of soil.
“I’m concerned the fire department was told to leave,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, emergency tips revealed in 2023 by the Pipeline Affiliation for Public Consciousness, which incorporates PG&E as a member, define suggestions for evacuation distances after fuel leaks primarily based on pipeline measurement and stress. It stays unclear whether or not county authorities and PG&E ought to have instructed residents to evacuate in accordance with these suggestions.
The rules additionally stress that leak responders ought to search to remove all potential ignition sources and, if essential, shut off electrical energy to the realm — steps that don’t seem to have occurred earlier than the explosion. The affiliation lists cell telephones, emergency radios, automobile engines and development gear as doable ignition sources.
Regardless of these warnings, a hanging video of the blast captured by a neighbor’s doorbell digicam reveals a employee working what seems to be an excavator as a house behind it detonates. It stays unclear who was working the heavy equipment.
“The most important thing you can do on a job site, if there’s something critical: stop,” mentioned Brian Aanestad, an underground development guide in San Diego County who serves as an knowledgeable witness in gas-safety lawsuits. “You have to stop.”
In an announcement the day after the blast, Oakland-based Redgwick Development Firm mentioned its subcontractor instantly stopped work after reducing the road. The agency alerted PG&E, which instructed staff to go away the realm, in keeping with the assertion. The street firm, employed by the county to finish a street enchancment challenge within the neighborhood, mentioned its crew was working two blocks away on the time of the blast.
“I don’t know what PG&E was doing at that time,” mentioned Redgwick Vice President Travis Miller in a telephone name.
Miller declined to reply extra questions concerning the leak. PG&E didn’t reply whether or not considered one of its staff was working the excavator.
In an announcement, Redgwick Development mentioned the road’s depth “deviated from the required code specifications.” A ¾-inch-diameter metal line and a 2-inch metal fuel fundamental on the website of the blast had been put in within the Nineteen Forties, in keeping with the NTSB.
Corridor mentioned the road’s depth might have contributed to why it was minimize. He mentioned the NTSB’s investigation is predicted to be accomplished in 12 to 24 months. Whereas the company has little enforcement authority, its findings might inform future penalties introduced by different regulators.
“The important facts,” Corridor mentioned, “are the two-hour response, the release of the fire department without verifying there wasn’t gas in the structures, and the lack of evacuation of the closed-in houses.”
