Huge Gas Explosion Kills 4, Levels Homes in California

(Sept. 10) -- A massive explosion apparently sparked by a ruptured gas line tore through a San Francisco suburb Thursday night, killing at least four people, seriously burning several others and leveling scores of homes.

A huge fireball lit up the sky over San Bruno with a thunderous roar, and flames spread quickly across 10 acres of residential housing after dark. With electricity cut off, hundreds of evacuees fumbled their way to safety in the darkness, as firefighters arrived and worked through the night to try to save their homes.

Bob Pellegrini and his brother Ed fled from their home in time to see it destroyed by the flames, which also wrecked their four cars.

"It looked like hell on earth. I have never seen a ball of fire that huge," Bob Pellegrini told the San Jose Mercury News.

The heat from the fire was like a blowtorch, the brothers said.

"The house is gone," Ed Pellegrini said. "I have nothing. Everything is gone. We're homeless."

Residents told CNN that they had complained for weeks about a "heavy gas smell" and that Pacific Gas & Electric, which serves about 15 million Bay Area customers, had sent workers to the area a few weeks ago.

PG&E spokesman Blair Jones would not directly address those complaints when asked whether the utility company had earlier visited the neighborhood. "There will be a full investigation," he told CNN. "Right now we're focused on the ground."

San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane told the Mercury News he expects the death count "will unfortunately get higher as the day progresses.''

"The sun is shining over here, but there is still a dark cloud hanging over the city," Ruane said.

The Associated Press reported that safety investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, which is responsible for investigating pipeline accidents, were headed today to the explosion site, a city of more than 42,000 located about 12 miles south of downtown San Francisco.

"This is a horrific tragedy," California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonaldo told reporters this morning. He said four people had died in the natural gas explosion and 52 were injured, including four firefighters. The San Mateo County coroner confirmed that four had died, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"We don't know what happened or what caused it," Maldonaldo said. The state has declared a state of emergency, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending workers to the area, he said. Thirty-eight structures were reported destroyed and eight more damaged.

Contra Costa Fire Battalion Chief Dave George said heat radiating off the fire was more than 1,200 degrees -- hot enough to burn a couch inside a brick home through the window.

"What makes this fire so devastating and so difficult is essentially it creates the equivalent of an eight-alarm fire in the heart of a residential neighborhood," George told the Mercury News. "It behaves differently than most other fires because it grows in all directions at the same time. Whatever it wants to do, it does."

PG&E shut off gas flow to the neighborhood, and the utility's president, Chris Johns, held a late-night news conference to announce that investigators are looking into reports that residents smelled gas for days leading up to the explosion. One of PG&E's pipes burst, Johns acknowledged, pledging that the company would "do the right thing for everyone involved."

"The right thing is, we will be accountable," Johns told the Los Angeles Times.

"A terrible, terrible tragedy has fallen on our city," Mayor Ruane told reporters, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "Say a special prayer for those people," he said, referring to casualties. "This is going to be a long haul for this city."

About two dozen people have been hospitalized for burns, smoke inhalation and other injuries, and three patients -- a man in his 50s and two women in their 80s -- are in critical condition, the Chronicle reported.

Evacuees described what it was like to feel the explosion and flee from their homes.

"I was in my bedroom and heard a boom," Tina Pellegrini told the L.A. Times. "My house is shaking. I thought it was an earthquake. I get the dog to go ride it out. We look out the living room window, and it was orange. I had the forethought to put on my shoes and grab my purse and run out of my house. I could feel the fire from five houses away. It was so intense."

Her neighbor Marla Shelmadine lives four houses down from the explosion site. "It was like an inferno," Shelmadine told the Times. "If we stayed any longer, our skin would have melted."

Among those forced to flee was the mother of San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval. The baseball star told MLB.com that his mother, Amelia, evacuated a home he's been renting for her in San Bruno. "She's all right," Sandoval said, adding that his mother is taking refuge in San Jose, where another son lives.