{"id":20390,"date":"2010-09-11T12:56:07","date_gmt":"2010-09-11T19:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mehallo.com\/blog\/?p=20390"},"modified":"2010-09-15T03:07:17","modified_gmt":"2010-09-15T10:07:17","slug":"san-bruno-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mehallo.com\/blog\/archives\/20390","title":{"rendered":"San Bruno explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thursday evening I saw a Tweet come in. It said there was an airplane crash in San Bruno.<\/p>\n

I grew up across from the San Francisco Airport and my dad used to always joke that an airplane \u2013 someday \u2013 would come crashing thru the front window. And now I\u2019m – allegedly<\/em> – reading about it on Twitter. <\/p>\n

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Around 6 pm on Thursday, a gas main exploded in San Bruno \u2013 and took lives and homes with it. No airplane. Gas main. LARGE gas main. <\/p>\n

I spent much of Thursday night culling thru spotty news coverage (I’m in Sacramento), looking at Google maps and watching footage of a neighborhood that I spent a lot of time in \u2013 go up in flames.<\/p>\n

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My big concern: Did Bob\u2019s parents get out?<\/em> <\/p>\n

As the evening went on \u2013 and I watched footage of 1950s tract homes (that mostly look alike), I started to piece together the scenario. By 2 am, my wife found a report of an eyewitness who saw each home on their street go up one after another. Their house was about a block away from the explosion.<\/p>\n

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Friday morning I was able to confirm that Bob\u2019s parents \u2013 and their dog \u2013 did get out. That\u2019s the good news. Their house, however, is completely gone.<\/p>\n

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\nClick to view before and after images\/jump<\/em><\/p>\n

In the coming weeks, there\u2019s going to be reports of prior \u2018gas smell\u2019 in the area (since San Bruno is next to the airport, San Bruno itself has sort of an airplane fuel-like aroma already), PG&E and how they maintain their equipment (based on relatives who worked there, I\u2019ve heard stories all my life about PG&E\u2019s \u2018if it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it\u2019 attitude), how natural gas works, why there was no water to fight the fires, why there was such a huge main in a residential neighborhood, were there terrorists, what do the Kardashians think, etc.<\/p>\n

For now, I\u2019m still sort of looking on in shock.<\/p>\n


\nThe gas main  . . .<\/em><\/p>\n


\nand the hole it made<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos and video found via KGO-TV<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\t

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