Aftermath of the San Bruno Fire

[nadinbrzezinski]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/12/san-bruno-explosion-photos_n_713976.html

And folks the story of this fire is INFRASTRUCTURE, INFRASTRUCTURE, INFRASTRUCTURE. We don't have money for education, we don't have money for infrastructure, and we have charged two wars...

Anybody care to do the math?

San Bruno is part of that math.

[malaise]

1. Actually it's worse than that -it's deteriorating infrastructure

and no regulations. Did I hear that the gas lines were over 50 years old and were there before the homes?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Sixty years old

and there are things you can do to use them even longer... call this a sneaky but I don't think they have received much caring or feeding for a while. Mostly they don't have any recent records... as in the last decade.

[malaise]

13. Well the gas company won't be charged with manslaughter

so Get over yourself :sarcasm:

[CreekDog]

15. 54 years old

PG&E examined the lines and said this wasn't even the worst segment.

That's the segment 2 miles north, which is due for replacement.

And to think I felt lucky to be almost 2 miles north --and of course, I am.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. YES! I heard that gas line had been tagged as dangerous a while back due to its proximity to homes..

I also heard that people had been reporting the smell gas for over a week.

What a tragedy...so many horrific fires going on lately. Boulder, Colorado is burning as well.
Firefighters who were out there fighting the blaze were among those whose homes were lost in this fire.


There is a fire here in NYC..Queens.that has been burning for hours with no control yet.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. There is a main line

just outside my window running down the easement... that is not that uncommon. What leads to these tragedies is lack of care.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. After the deadly blast, there was some denial by PG&E that the pipeline was even theirs;

then denial that the pipeline was the one in the survey, but federal investigators (who released PG&E's survey) said the pipeline was PG&E's.


Sound Familiar?

More from Huffington piece on PG&E:

"Here's what we know so far: residents reported smelling odors in the San Bruno community in the days before the blast. They called PG&E but nothing was detected. No one took the customer complaints up the chain of command to the bosses who had a report listing the San Francisco peninsula pipelines as "high risk."

We know the utility had the money -- our money -- to fix the pipelines because public filings show that just last spring, PG&E chose to spend $45 million in ratepayer dollars in a failed bid to block public power. These are funds that could have been used to repair what the utility's own survey said was a high risk pipeline on the SF peninsula. So why make the decision for politics not pipelines? If the spending decisions were not related, why not? At the very least, PG&E should have a moratorium on political spending until they compensate the San Bruno victims and fix the pipelines."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-pelosi/deadly-priorities-why-did_b_713800.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Well when I first saw the first photo

I went... Wanna bet this is a gas explosion? They were probably hoping...

Still it is stupid since all those pipelines are mapped.

[femrap]

7. HOLD ON!!!!

The woman working for the PUBLIC COMMISSION UTILITY COMMISSION SAFEGUARDING GAS LINES was killed along with her daughter!!!! Her house was at GROUND ZERO.

PG&E isn't known for its customer service...it's known for its 'ERIN BROCKOVICH.'

PG&E is evil and will do what it takes to profit.

This is murder.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. That is part of the investigation I am sure

they are looking at both civil and criminal right now.

It will take six months to get any conclusion on this. TO my uneducated eyes it looks like a classic failure after seeping... as in structural failure, the week of smelling gas fits.

I am not an engineer though. So it is just informed by having seen other main lines fail that way.

[femrap]

19. I don't trust anyone...so

my thought was PG&E tried for a small gas explosion that would just hurt her home...but they couldn't get it to 'poof' so they kept trying and trying until 'POOF.'

One man interviewed said he called them 3 weeks ago. He was told to go into his garage and shut the door.

I just don't believe in coincidences.

Let It Fail or Made To Fail?

[TheMadMonk]

12. I doubt this was any deliberate attempt to get at them.

Bad enough if evidence arises that warnings from her were ignored because of who she is. In PG&Es eyes a serial complainer and all round pain in the arse.

If this were deliberate, and it ever came out the blood would be knee deep.

I can see the degree of stupidity that might conceive the idea of engineering a gas accident in her home and pushing the idea that she was so fanatical about laying blame that she neglected her own property with tragic results. AAAAnnnd... unfortunately touching off the nearby 30" main which really was leaking after all. However, I don't see anyone with sufficient clout in the organisation being stupid enough to put his imprinture of approval on such a scheme.

If her house ultimately proves to be the trigger site then all bets are off. Until then, the safe money is on incompetence and basic corporate greed, not a heavy handed attempt to remove a nusciance no worse than dozens of other like nuisances.

[Starry Messenger]

9. It's horrible.

My partner went to a meeting on Saturday in San Bruno and PG&E were being turds there, invoking 9/11 as a reason to not reveal to residents where the remaining gas pipes are located in the neighborhoods. WTF has happened to this country? These stupid wars are the reason our coffers are bare. San Bruno is a sleepy little suburb. Shit like this doesn't happen there. Until it does. Although most Dems disgust me these days, I must say the local response by Jackie Speiers has been great (I love her) and I think Leland Yee will be a good advocate too.

I wish more attention was being paid to the same situation that has happened in Detroit. I feel like the country has washed its hands of Detroit, and they had a disastrous fire related to the power company nearly the same day:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ggaFXU6jGHxY2p-sN2awBvKy_RIQD9I4IB8O0

We're going to be looking at a lot more of these kinds of situations soon. SOS, Washington. :(

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Both Detroit and this place in NorCal

disappeared in the media ... as if they did not exist.

That leads to a whole other conversation of who controls what and the urgent need for alternate and widespread media, including old fashioned mimeographs.

24\7 NOOZ did nothing to cover this. And they studiously have avoided both since. Detroid farther than NorCal, but not by much more.

[CreekDog]

17. PG&E...They are the BP/Exxon of public utilities

What other utility has has a simple gas line break kill 4 but perhaps 7 and cause 6 to go missing while burning down 45 houses?

This is now what PG&E will be known for, just like Exxon is known for Valdez and BP will always been known for the Gulf.

PG&E, are you happy you spent $45 million on Prop. 16 and somewhere closer to zero on this line in San Bruno?

Good investment? Ask your shareholders, your stock tanked on Friday.

Chris Johns step aside, what other utility CEO has had to preside over a neighborhood getting destroyed?

People may say that my opinions are out of control, but PG&E was out of control this spring when they were neglecting their network and spending millions on a political campaign to assure a competitor would need 67% of the vote to undue their monopoly.

:grr:

[Cleita]

11. PG & E is sponsoring a

Harvest Festival in my village along with a few other Republican community turkeys. I know that they are fighting to keep the nuclear plant going in my area that people want to get rid of so this is why they are doing it. So they are spending money on this shit instead of working on the infrastructure of their empire. It's like BP running all those commercials about how wonderful they are instead of using the money to take care of the people whose lives they ruined.

:puke:

[CreekDog]

18. people should wear black and stand in a crowd at their stand

i would love to see that.

PG&E may want money but their oxygen is good press and well, they don't deserve any right now.

Sadly, they have terrific line employees, who have been laid off and not given the resources to maintain the network.

If anything happens to PG&E, it's my guess Chris Johns (CEO) will be extremely wealthy as punishment and line employees will suffer, if there is any suffering to be done.

[madokie]

14. but the pukes want more money via tax cuts

shame that we can't have a season on the bastids actually.

just kiddin' but for criss sakes government is to provide for us the services we can't provide for ourselves and the bulk of the money for that government should be coming from the ones who are bilking us at every turn. Minimum profits should be allowed on what it takes to survive as a people and as a country.

rec

[KharmaTrain]

16. A Ticking Time Bomb...

Many of the pipes under our cities are coming up on 50 to 100 years old and costly to maintain and/or replace. Considering we have a privitized utility system and they can pretty much charge what they feel, one has to question where the money we pay (and pay and pay) for utilities is going to and what kind of re-investment they have in updating and upgrading their faciities. While a public utility, PGE is still a private corporation whose charter includes the upkeep and maintenance of facilities...they shouldn't be able to pass the buck in what appears to be negligence of the highest order.