The San Bruno pipeline explosion occurred at 6:11 pm
PDT on September 9, 2010, in
San Bruno, California
San Bruno ( Spanish for " St. Bruno") is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, incorporated in 1914. The population was 43,908 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is between South San Francisco and Millbrae, adjacent to S ...
, when a diameter steel
natural gas pipeline
Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...
owned by
Pacific Gas & Electric
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...
exploded into flames in the Crestmoor residential neighborhood west of
San Francisco International Airport near
Skyline Boulevard
A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land.
City skyline ...
and San Bruno Avenue.
The loud roar and shaking led some residents of the area, first responders, and news media to initially believe that it was an earthquake or that a large airplane had crashed. It took crews nearly an hour to determine it was a gas pipeline explosion.
As of September 29, 2010, the death toll was eight people.
The
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
registered the explosion and resulting
shock wave
In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...
as a magnitude 1.1 earthquake.
Eyewitnesses reported the initial blast "shot a fireball more than in the air".
Explosion and fire
At 6:11 pm PDT on September 9, 2010, a huge explosion occurred in the Crestmoor residential neighborhood of San Bruno, near Skyline Boulevard and San Bruno Avenue.
This caused a fire, which quickly engulfed nearby houses. Emergency responders from San Bruno and nearby cities soon arrived at the scene and evacuated surrounding neighborhoods. Strong winds fanned the flames, hampering fire fighting efforts.
The blaze was fed by a ruptured gas pipe, and large clouds of smoke soared into the sky. It took 60 to 90 minutes to shut off the gas after the explosion, according to San Bruno Fire Chief Dennis Haag.
The explosion and resulting fire leveled either 35 or 37 houses and damaged at least 8 more,
according to conflicting sources. Three of the damaged houses, deemed uninhabitable, were torn down the following December.
About 200 firefighters battled the
eight alarm fire that resulted from the explosions.
The explosion excavated an asymmetric
crater long, wide
and deep along the sidewalk of Glenview Drive in front of 1701 Earl Avenue (a corner house), but many of the destroyed homes were eastward in the 1600 block of Claremont Drive.
The fire continued to burn for several hours after the initial explosion. The explosion compromised a water main and required firefighters to truck in water from outside sources. Firefighters were assisted by residents who dragged fire hoses nearly to working hydrants. Ordinary citizens drove injured people and burn victims to the hospital. Mutual aid responded from all over the Bay Area, including the
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various areas under state responsi ...
who sent 25 fire engines, four airtankers, two air attack planes, and one helicopter.
The fire was only fifty percent contained by 10 pm PDT and continued to burn until about 11:40 am PDT the next day.
As of September 29, 2010, the death toll was eight people.
Among the eight deaths was 20-year-old Jessica Morales, who was with her boyfriend, Joseph Ruigomez, at the epicenter of the fire (his home) on the corner of Earl Ave. Despite his proximity to the epicenter of the fire, Ruigomez survived but spent nearly five months recovering in the
Saint Francis Memorial Hospital
Saint Francis Memorial Hospital is an accredited, not-for-profit community hospital that has been operating in San Francisco since the early twentieth century. Saint Francis Memorial is a member of Dignity Health, now part of CommonSpirit Health. ...
Burn Center. Two other people at the Claremont address close to the explosion were among those killed: Jacqueline Greig, 44, and her daughter Janessa Greig, 13. Greig worked for the
California Public Utilities Commission
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC or PUC) is a regulatory agency that regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies. In addition ...
(CPUC), in a small unit that advocates for consumer rights pertaining to natural gas regulations. She had spent part of the summer evaluating PG&E's expansion plans and investment proposals to replace out-of-date pipelines. Also killed in the blast were Lavonne Bullis, 82, Greg Bullis, 50, and Will Bullis, 17.
File:SanBrunoFireNight.jpg, View of the fire on Sep. 9, 2010 at 11:31 pm PDT
File:Devastation in San Bruno.jpg, Destruction after fire and explosion in San Bruno
Response
San Bruno
A
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
shelter was set up at the Veterans Memorial Recreation Center in San Bruno,
[Red Cross Opens San Bruno Fire Shelter, CBS5](_blank)
, September 9, 2010 23:55 UTC−07. and the
Blood Centers of the Pacific issued an emergency appeal for blood donations.
[Blood Donations Needed Due To San Bruno Fire, CBS5](_blank)
, September 9, 2010 22:22 UTC−07. Some people were evacuated to
Tanforan and Bayhill Shopping Centers.
All elementary schools in the
San Bruno Park Elementary School District
San Bruno Park Elementary School District was created in 1906 in San Bruno, California to meet the needs of a growing population following the San Francisco earthquake and fire.
History
The first public school in San Bruno, California, known as ...
, as well as Parkside Junior High, were closed on September 10. However,
Capuchino High School
Capuchino High School is a public high school in San Bruno, California, United States. It is one of seven high schools in the San Mateo Union High School District, a division of the San Mateo County Office of Education.
Capuchino's rival is Mi ...
remained open.
[School, Road Closures Due To San Bruno Fire, CBS5](_blank)
, September 9, 2010 23:55 UTC−07. Some residents who were evacuated from their homes were allowed to return to those undamaged on Sunday, September 12.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
The
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is the owner of the pipeline. On September 10, 2010, PG&E's president, Christopher Johns, said the company was not able to approach the source of the explosion to investigate the cause.
An official press release issued by PG&E on September 10 reported the pipe was a steel transmission line.
Shares of PG&E stock fell eight percent on the Friday after the explosion,
reducing the company's market capitalization by $1.57 billion.
PG&E also reduced their operating pressures by 20 percent after investigations revealed the pipeline may have been improperly installed.
After the San Bruno pipeline failure, PG&E was required to re-evaluate how it determines the maximum operating pressure for some 1,800 miles of pipeline throughout its system. Specifically, the CPUC asked PG&E officials to show their lines had been tested or examined in a way that could prove the pipeline can withstand the current maximum operating pressure. At the March 15, 2011 deadline for this report, PG&E was unable to provide documentation for details of some of its gas transmission pipelines.
In response to the disaster and a subsequent decision (D.11-06-017) by the CPUC, PG&E unveiled a plan in August 2011 to modernize and enhance safety of its gas transmission operations over several years, including automation of over 200 valves, strength-testing over of pipe, replacing , and upgrading another or so to allow in-line inspection.
The plan was divided into two phases. The first phase, scheduled to end in 2014, targeted pipeline segments in urban areas, those not built to modern standards, and those that had not been strength-tested. Project funding of $769 million was the subject of a PG&E application (R.11-02-019) for a three-year increase in gas rates starting January 2012.
["Notification of filing of Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Gas Transmission Pipeline Safety Enhancement Plan", brochure dated September 2011]
On November 6, 2011, an explosion occurred near Woodside, California during strength testing of PG&E pipelines. The explosion caused a mudslide in the area; however, no casualties were reported.
California state government
Lieutenant Governor
Abel Maldonado
Abel O. Maldonado Jr. (born August 21, 1967) is an American politician who served as the 48th lieutenant governor of California from April 27, 2010 to January 10, 2011. As of 2022, he is the last Republican to serve as lieutenant governor of C ...
made a state of emergency declaration and signed an executive order to provide aid to victims.
State regulators ordered PG&E to survey all natural gas lines the company controls in California. Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger later went through the area, after returning from a trade mission in Asia.
Federal government
U.S. Rep.
Jackie Speier called the devastation "a very serious crisis" and was asking
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Ex ...
(FEMA) to declare it a national disaster area.
Use of technology
The San Bruno explosion was notable for the fact that local technology companies such as
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
and
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
dispatched their emergency response teams to provide emergency communications and enhanced mapping information at the request of responders at the scene. Coordinated through the nonprofit
InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases, and Disasters), with support from the Carnegie Mellon University Disaster Management Initiative, a number of unaffiliated technology volunteers were requested to support many of the
GIS (Geographic Information Systems) response efforts, coordinated through the Planning Section Chief.
Investigation
San Bruno Police declared the area a crime scene to determine if foul play was involved.
The
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) began an investigation into the cause of the explosion.
[ ] During the days prior to the explosion, some residents reported smelling natural gas in the area.
A source within PG&E reported a break in natural gas line number 132 caused the explosion. At the time of the explosion, the pressure within that part of the pipeline was . Although this was greater than PG&E's maximum rated operating pressure for that section of the pipeline, it was still below PG&E's specified maximum allowable rating of . The gas line is a large steel pipe.
NTSB vice chairman
Christopher Hart said at a briefing that the segment of pipe that blew out onto the street was long, the explosion sent that piece of pipe about and the blast created a crater long and wide, though the NTSB Pipeline Accident Report would later size the crater to be long and wide. He said that an inspection of the severed pipe chunk revealed that it was made of several smaller sections that had been welded together and that a seam ran its length. The presence of the welds did not necessarily indicate the pipe had been repaired, he said.
Newer pipelines are usually manufactured into the shape needed for these applications, rather than having multiple weaker welded sections that could potentially leak or break.
In January 2011, federal investigators reported that they found numerous defective welds in the pipeline. The thickness of the pipe varied, and some welds did not penetrate the pipes completely. As PG&E increased the pressure in the pipes to meet growing energy demand, the defective welds were further weakened until their failure. As the pipeline was installed in 1956, modern testing methods such as
X-rays
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nbs ...
were not available to detect the problem at that time.
The NTSB held a 3-day public hearing on March 1 through 3, 2011, to gather additional facts for the ongoing investigation of the pipeline rupture and explosion.
Parties to the public hearing included:
*
Pacific Gas & Electric
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...
*
California Public Utilities Commission
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC or PUC) is a regulatory agency that regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies. In addition ...
(CPUC)
*
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is a United States Department of Transportation agency created in 2004, responsible for developing and enforcing regulations for the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound oper ...
(PHMSA)
* The City of San Bruno
*
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a trade union, labor union that represents approximately 775,000 workers and retirees in the electricity, electrical industry in the United States, Canada, Guam, Panama, Puerto Rico, a ...
Local 1245
The NTSB also published call logs from the Milpitas PG&E gas terminal to a gas control center. An
uninterruptible power supply
An uninterruptible power supply or uninterruptible power source (UPS) is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source or mains power fails. A UPS differs from an auxiliary or emergency power syste ...
(UPS) replacement was started at the Milpitas terminal several hours before the San Bruno explosion.
It was revealed that PG&E had done pipeline replacement work on Line 132 along parts of the San Andreas Fault zone, near this area, to reduce the likelihood of the pipeline failing from an earthquake. However, the replacement was stopped short of the area that failed in 2010.
On January 13, 2012, an independent audit from the State of California issued a report stating that PG&E had illegally diverted over $100 million from a fund used for safety operations, and instead used it for executive compensation and bonuses.
Litigation
Private party
Through more than 20 law firms, over 100 plaintiffs have sued Pacific Gas and Electric and/or its parent, PG&E Corporation, in the
Superior Courts of California in over 70 separate lawsuits. Virtually all were filed in the local state court, the Superior Court of California for the County of San Mateo. All the cases were considered and transferred to Judge Steven L. Dylina on March 4, 2011, and designated as Judicial Council Coordinated Proceeding (JCCP) No. 4648, ''PG&E "San Bruno Fire" Cases''. On June 3, 2011, the plaintiffs filed a consolidated Master Complaint.
On July 5, 2011, PG&E's lawyers filed their Answer to the Master Complaint. A week later, the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'' ran a front-page story attacking the defendants for invoking certain routine defenses in their answer, like state-of-the-art and
comparative negligence
Comparative negligence, called non-absolute contributory negligence outside the United States, is a partial legal defense that reduces the amount of damages that a plaintiff can recover in a negligence-based claim, based upon the degree to which t ...
.
In July 2012, the plaintiffs lodged a deposition in San Mateo County Superior Court claiming that PG&E management ignored employee concerns about
GIS data inaccuracies that impeded inspection of the pipeline.
In September 2013, PG&E settled the claims of 347 victims. PG&E had previously settled with 152 victims; the additional settlements brought the total payment to $565 million for 499 victims. Two victims' lawsuits remained after the settlement, but newspapers later reported the $565 million figure as the final settlement for all victim claims. PG&E stated in its 2015 annual report that it had paid $558 million in third-party claims, and $92 million in legal costs, and received $515 million from insurance.
State of California
In October 2012, public hearings on the San Bruno pipeline blast at the CPUC were suspended for state regulators and PG&E to strike a deal about the fines. Rene Morales, mother of Jessica Morales who was burned alive and one of eight people that was killed in the fire requested that California Governor Jerry Brown appoint a new president of the California PUC. Also in October 2012, former Senator
George J. Mitchell was chosen to lead talks in the settlement of fines in the explosion. In December 2012 the CPUC decided that 55% of the long term costs for PG&E pipeline inspection and safety upgrades of $229 million will be borne by electricity rate payers.
On September 16, 2014, the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' reported that Carol Brown, the chief of staff for the president of the CPUC, had communicated with PG&E executives to help move litigation to judges they expected would be friendly to PG&E's side.
As of October 2014 the judge shopping scandal is under federal investigation.
In 2018, the CPUC fined PG&E $92.5 million for improper communication with CPUC commissioners and staff.
On April 9, 2015, the Public Utilities Commission fined PG&E $1.6 billion.
Federal
On April 1, 2014, PG&E was indicted by a federal grand jury in
United States District Court for the Northern District of California for multiple violations of the
Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
relating to its record keeping and pipeline "integrity management" practices.
An additional indictment was issued by the grand jury on July 29, 2014, charging the company with
obstruction of justice
Obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, is an act that involves unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investigators, or other gov ...
for lying to the NTSB regarding its pipeline testing policy, bringing the total number of counts in the indictment to 28.
Under the new indictment, the company could be fined as much as $1.3 billion, based on profit associated with the alleged misconduct, in addition to $2.5 billion for state regulatory violations.
[
On January 21, 2017, PG&E was fined $3 million and ordered to perform 10,000 hours of ]community service
Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performe ...
for criminal actions of violating the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act and for obstruction of justice. In addition, it must institute a compliance and ethics monitoring program and spend up to $3 million to "publicize its criminal conduct". These actions were imposed after the company was found guilty by a federal jury in August 2016 of six of the twelve charges against the company in US District Court.
Shareholders
In 2017, PG&E settled a shareholder class action lawsuit alleging "gross mismanagement" by agreeing to have its insurance company pay PG&E $90 million, and to budget $32 million for safety and governance improvements.
Media coverage
Brigham McCown
Brigham A. McCown (born July 3, 1966 in Ironton, Ohio) is a former member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service at the United States Department of Transportation. He served as chief executive of (2020-2022) the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company ...
, the former head for the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, called for the creation of a national commission to examine the problems surrounding high-pressure fuel pipelines that have been built in residential areas. McCown says it often takes an "incident like this one to force change." He also suggested installing a "no man's land" around some pipelines in hopes of preventing another disaster.
On September 9, 2012, a memorial to the victims was unveiled in the San Bruno City Park.
See also
* List of pipeline accidents
References
External links
San Bruno explosion map
Interactive map from ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
''.
"Resources for San Bruno Residents"
(KGO-TV
KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's ABC network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, KGO-TV ma ...
)
Aerial photograph of the aftermath
– Taken on November 9, 2010
Before and after comparison photos
Photo gallery and links to stories and information
Commercial pilots in the air realized it was not a plane crash
– Video
Surveillance video of the explosion from a gas station one quarter mile away
– Video
Surveillance video from inside a grocery store one quarter mile away
– Video
National Pipeline Mapping System
– Location of gas transport pipelines
– 65,000 emails between PG&E and the CPUC
The NTSB Report on the San Bruno PG&E gas pipeline failure
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