An explosion in California’s Bay Area on Thursday significantly damaged at least three buildings and saw six people transported to the hospital, a few hours after a construction crew reported striking an underground gas line.
The explosion occurred in the unincorporated community of Ashland, north of the city of Hayward. Footage of the episode caught on a camera across the street shows the roof of a house being launched into the sky by an explosion that collapses the structure. People in the area can be seen fleeing as smoke billows from the site where the home once was.
The status of the people who were taken to the hospital is unknown, but three were considered “immediate transports” while the others were considered “minor,” Ryan Nishimoto, the deputy fire chief of Alameda County, told reporters.
Pacific Gas & Energy was notified at 7:35 a.m. local time that a construction crew unaffiliated with the company had “struck an underground gas line,” Tamar Sarkissian, a PG&E spokeswoman, told reporters. The company dispatched crews to the scene to isolate the damaged line, she said.
“The flow of gas was stopped at 9:25 a.m.,” she said, adding that the explosion occurred approximately 10 minutes later.
“Just to clarify, we did not wait two hours to shut the gas off. We were working to isolate the line and to be able to safely turn off the gas,” Sarkissian said when asked by reporters about the delay.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office could not be immediately reached for comment on the incident.
Dozens of firefighters were dispatched to the scene in the wake of the explosion, according to Nishimoto. But one fire engine had shown up to the area around two hours before it happened, he told reporters.
“When our crew showed up two hours prior, we did not smell gas, detect gas, or see any reason for an emergency, so we waited to speak to PG&E,” Nishimoto said when asked by reporters why firefighters had not evacuated the people in those buildings.
The firefighters were told by the PG&E crew that their assistance was not needed, he said.
PG&E did not immediately respond to a question about the timeline of the events.
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