Huge blast in San Bruno; neighborhood on fire

This all makes me wonder if government regulation needs to come back. The gas and oil companies need a watchdog to keep America safe. It appears this accident was negligence on the part of PG&E workers. These companies aren't interested in human life, only making a profit. The governments are supposed to represent the people and the governments are supposed to police bad business.

Originally posted by lostinspace
This all makes me wonder if government regulation needs to come back. The gas and oil companies need a watchdog to keep America safe. It appears this accident was negligence on the part of PG&E workers. These companies aren't interested in human life, only making a profit. The governments are supposed to represent the people and the governments are supposed to police bad business.

it is this kind of thinking that will ultimately lead to a police state.

please stop thinking for the sake of the rest of us.

I wonder/worry if incidents like this are only going to get more common as our infrastructure in this country falls apart.

I'm starting to wonder if the gas lines in this area are getting old. I live in the Sacramento area, not too far geographically from San Bruno (about 95 miles). Just recently, there was a gas line that ruptured by my house here in Roseville (about 20 miles from Sacramento), then a day or two later, another gas line ruptured near Carmichael (about 14 miles from sac), now a day later, we get this.

reply to post by 19872012


It's going to take a disaster like this one in a major metropolitan city to have the nation take notice on the problem. Quite depressing.

Originally posted by amodedoma
Roads, water mains, gas lines, powerlines, phone lines, TV cable, and a long list of etc. Americas infrastructures are very deteriorated and getting worse, The privately owned stuff doesn't get fixed because people don't wan't rate hikes, the publicly owned stuff doesn't get fixed because people don't want tax hikes. Like everything else that's going wrong in this country, it's all about the money.

Infrastructure maintenance is a part of everyone's utilities bill. The companies just choose to take the money as profit rather then spending it where they should.

Profit is definitely the issue that is destroying the USA. In my ideal world the government owns all the utilities and all the natural resources as well. This would eliminate several layers of profit. Thus we would get our utilities at the actual cost. of their production and delivery. Instead of paying a bunch of guys huge sums at the top the of the utility, we could instead hire more workers and employ more technology to bring these services up to 21st century standards. It is a no brainer unless you are one of those guys at the top.

One of the great lies of America is that the profit motive is responsible for all our advances and without it we would see no progress. In my ideal world profit could only be made on items in excess of the basic lifestyle, like caviar,etc. This doesn't mean people don't get paid well for producing or delivering goods or innovative ideas. It does mean we see the end of a small group of the elite hogging all the resources and wealth from them for themselves.

Originally posted by rogerstigers
My very first thought after reading the description was also a meteor strike. That would explain the sound ....

.

A gas line rupturing and bursting into flames would also make a very loud sound.

just saying.

but yes, maybe it was a metoeorite, or a north korean missile, or a ufo, or a terrist attack... and of course, you cant forget to blame Obama!

on NPR today it was mentioned in passing that neighbors have complained of smelling gas for weeks now.

reply to post by DOADOA


After watching CNN a few minutes ago I noticed they mentioned the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). They said this administration is responsible in overseeing these companies who manage the gas pipeline. They were noted as being under funded and said the administration is at the mercy of the utility company doing the oversight. This will probably change now. The PHMSA will probably be given real power because of this accident.

San Bruno gas explosion
www.phmsa.dot.gov...

These other agencies received their fangs recently.

Deepwater Disaster
www.boemre.gov... (Formally known as MMS)

Too big to fail
www.sec.gov...


Notice the trend?

What disaster is next which will give another agency more power?

Originally posted by DOADOA

Originally posted by lostinspace
This all makes me wonder if government regulation needs to come back. The gas and oil companies need a watchdog to keep America safe. It appears this accident was negligence on the part of PG&E workers. These companies aren't interested in human life, only making a profit. The governments are supposed to represent the people and the governments are supposed to police bad business.

it is this kind of thinking that will ultimately lead to a police state.

please stop thinking for the sake of the rest of us.

Yes, because having a government agency in charge of regulating the industries who clearly have no intent of doing i themselevs (this thread being a great example) is TOTALLY the same thing as a police state.

Originally posted by 19872012
I wonder/worry if incidents like this are only going to get more common as our infrastructure in this country falls apart.

Indeed. And if the 'free marketeers' get their way, they will allow it to all crumble, because investing in our infrastructure is "Socialism", dontchankow?

And then, after the roads are non-existent, and water delivery systems corrupted, and the oil rigs bleed millions of gallons into the sea, they can blame the 'liberals' and 'socialists' for it in their twisted, backwards logic that the rubes lap up.

reply to post by Skada


I live down the street and my place wasn't shaking. I could just hear the loudest explosion I've ever heard. The big one IS coming though.

Hey there,
Came across an article tonight that states the National Transportation Safety Board is handling the pipeline rupture, Does anyone know why they would cover this? How do pipelines correspond with transportation?
www.ntsb.gov...

reply to post by srbouska


From that website it looks like they are related to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials agency, which I mentioned a few posts ago.

reply to post by poet1b

Also, why would there be a large gas main in that area?

Anyone come up with a map with PG&E's gas main lines. This might be information kept hidden for many reasons.

Probably because the gas main was there for years when area was rural and the housing development was built over it in past few years.....

reply to post by illumin8ed

The hole in the ground from the explosion happened right in the street above. In 2007 you can see some road work was done. Now, this is a stretch... but.. maybe some road work caused a leak, and it just got worse over the years.

This what happened in NJ explosion back in 1994 - excavating work several years before gouged the pipe.

The gouge left a weak spot which ruptured in massive explosion. Lucky thing in NJ explosion was that noise
of escaping gas warned people in apartment complex to get clear - had 10 min warning before it blew

Wow I didnt think this would be on ATS. Anyways I live a few blocks up (sneath) and I took a few pictures up close of the fire and it was insane. CDF tankers are flying a hundred feet above the ground and was intense. sadly so far 4 have died and I have one relative who is missing and one might not make it but its over now. ill post some pics

I did some plotting on google earth. It now has an epicenter from the blast on the day it happened. Make sure the gallery option is checked. The map cooridinates are 37 25 19.1 N 122 5 6 W. The house next to the blast can be seeen from street view. The rest of the devastation is to the northeast.

I was looking over this because I was wondering about local fault lines. The San Andreas fault is 1/4 mile away. Really didn't see any relationship. The blast area , you would think, would be in a circular pattern. It is not. it starts at the epicenter which is the corner of Glenview drive and earl, then goes directly northeast. Nothing in the other direction. Not sure if this has something to do with the position of the gas lines just thought it was something to investigate. sfgate has a lot of reference points to use as it is hard to get your head around the layout of the blast area.

Also if you go to 990 glenview on streetview and look at the road there is a road cut between the 2 access cover for the pipe. you will see a patch of asphalt that was replaced after some work had been done. it is in the same spot as the blast and seems to go in the same direction. It might go up the path that you see. that is the direction the blast traveled. PG&e might have ran the line down the backyards where the powerlines run. you'll notice most powerline in this area are in the back yard not on the street.

Look at the street. You will see painted markings. these are put there by the call before you dig guys. not sure what they are saying. Anyone know what these marking represent?

reply to post by jlafleur02

I don't think it not being a circular pattern is odd. You're assuming that the blast happened perpendicular to the ground in a fashion similar to a controlled explosion. Depending where the pipe burst and in what direction it burst would be the first thing that could lead the destruction in the path it took. The flow from the high pressure pipe also may have helped determine its path. It was also quite windy which probably helped the fire obtain the path it took. The pavement issue was brought up earlier and I suspect it might have something to do with this also.

Found the coding for utility location markings.

utility coding

It says white marking are for proposed excavation limits or route.
Yellow markings are for natural gas, oil, steam, petroleum, or other gaseous or flammable material
Green markings are for sewers and drain lines.


Didn't see any yellow markings only green and white. You can see the pipeline covers in the image. they are the smaller ones.(someone correct me if I am wrong) but they should be marked before any work is done for obviuos reasons