Fresno Officials Dispute PG&E Account of Gas Blast

Update: Tuesday, April 21: Fresno County officials are disputing statements from PG&E that digging by a front-loader operator at a sheriff's gun range on Friday afternoon breached a natural gas line, touching off a blast and fire.

Thirteen people were hurt in the incident, several critically. The fire shut down Highway 99 at the northern edge of Fresno for more than two hours and damaged a nearby rail line.

Over the weekend, PG&E said the explosion and fire were touched off when workers at the gun range "apparently struck" a 12-inch gas pipeline at the site. The utility described the episode as the result of a "dig-in."

But Monday, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims told the Fresno Bee that no digging was going on when the blast occurred:

Mims ... said the operator was using the front loader’s bucket to spread piles of soil along the berm that captures bullets from the shooting range. She added that the loader is not a “digging piece of equipment” and was merely driving on the road near the berm when the gas line ruptured.

“We have no one saying anything was dug up or struck or nicked,” Mims said. “That will be determined at the end of the investigation.”

A statement released Tuesday by the sheriff's office adds:

Contrary to published reports, there are no witnesses reporting that digging or excavating was taking place at the time of the explosion. The operator was using the loader’s bucket to spread piles of soil. As the loader was driving on the dirt road, a gas line ruptured and a fire was ignited near range six. The flames from the fire extended approximately 100 feet into the sky. The cause is unknown at this time.

Six people are still hospitalized, including five county jail inmates who were working at the site at the time of the blast. Three of the inmates and the driver of the front-loader are reported to be in critical but stable condition.

State Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) said Monday that the Fresno incident shows the need to tighten rules governing construction near pipelines and other underground infrastructure.

"It's a real tragedy, but it's a preventable accident," Hill said of Friday's blast.

He has proposed a bill, SB119, the Dig Safe Act, that would impose new requirements for marking pipelines and cables as well as penalties for contractors who fail to consult utilities before excavation projects.

"Current law is really not clear as to how it is supposed to be followed," Hill said in an interview with KQED's Peter Jon Shuler on Monday. "People sometimes don’t know what they’re supposed to do."

Fresno County officials say they did not notify PG&E of plans for work near the pipeline because "there were never any plans to dig or excavate the area."

The sheriff's office and PG&E are investigating the incident, as is the California Public Utilities Commission.

Update: Monday, April 20: State utilities regulators are looking into the series of events that led to Friday's massive gas explosion and fire in Fresno.

The incident injured 13 people, 11 of whom were hospitalized. Four people remain in critical condition with burns.

The blast occurred at a Fresno County sheriff's gun range just south of the San Joaquin River and east of Highway 99, on the outskirts of Fresno. Officials have said the line was apparently breached by a front-loader excavating a berm at the range.

PG&E has said it had received no notice of the work. The utility says the site had been inspected in 2013, and the pipeline at that time was covered by 40 inches of soil. PG&E also reports the pipeline route was inspected by foot on April 1 and again in an aerial survey last week, and no leaks had been detected. The pipeline's presence at the site was clearly marked, the utility says.

The Fresno Bee quoted county officials over the weekend confirming that they had never informed PG&E that work might be done near the pipeline.

The California Public Utilities Commission is investigating the incident. The CPUC says it will examine not only how the break in the line happened, but how PG&E responded.

The company says it noted a slight pressure drop in the line at 2:29 p.m. Friday, was first alerted to the rupture at 2:36 p.m. and had shut down the flow of gas through the line by 3 p.m. The gas remaining in the line continued burning until 3:56 p.m.

The reported number of those hospitalized after the blast was reduced from 15 to 11 over the weekend. Those injured included the operator of the front-loader, sheriff's deputies and inmates from a Fresno County Jail work crew. Of that number:

• Four were treated for burns and released by Saturday.
• One was in stable condition at a local hospital.
• Two suffered injuries described as "serious"
• Four were reported in critical condition.

Original post:

Scott Smith
Associated Press

FRESNO — A large gas pipeline exploded into a tower of fire Friday on the outskirts of this San Joaquin County city, closing both directions of Highway 99 and injuring at least 15 people, four of them critically, authorities said.

It was not clear what caused the explosion at the Fresno County sheriff's gun range. But authorities say it occurred while a county equipment operator was working with a jail inmate crew to expand a road on the range alongside the heavily traveled freeway.

The flames shot well over 100 feet into the air, witnesses said.

Four patients were being treated at Community Regional Medical Center's burn and trauma unit, spokeswoman Mary Lisa Russell said. Three of them are in critical condition and one is in serious condition, she said.

Four other patients were taken to St. Agnes Hospital and three more to Madera Community Hospital, and four others were treated and released at the scene, Fresno County Medical Services director Dan Lynch said.

Traffic heading north and south on Highway 99 was halted by the explosion about 2:30 p.m. as flames towered over the roadway, the California Highway Patrol reported. The highway was reopened three hours later, the CHP said.

The explosion happened at the Fresno County sheriff's gun range, where a work crew, including county jail inmates, using a front-loader apparently hit a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. pipe carrying natural gas, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said.

The front-loader driver was a county public works employee who had been working at the shooting range all day, along with 13 jail inmate workers. Four inmate workers are among the injured, Mims said.

Asked whether the driver was scraping or digging the earth when the gas exploded, Mims said her office is investigating.

"Hopefully we'll be able to speak to the worker to see what action he was taking at the time," she said.

The 12-inch diameter pipeline involved in the fire belongs to PG&E, said Pete Martinez of the Fresno Fire Department.

PG&E spokesman Keith Stephens referred questions to local authorities. Stephens said he could not comment on whether the pipeline involved was PG&E's or whether anyone with PG&E had been at the scene.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are reported to be injured. We do not have definitive information" on the situation, he said.

PG&E's natural gas operations have been under intensifying scrutiny in the wake of a fiery 2010 PG&E pipeline blast that killed eight people in San Bruno.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators blamed faulty safety practices by PG&E, and lax oversight by state regulators, for the 2010 blast.

Earlier this month, state regulators leveled the state's biggest-ever penalty against a utility — $1.6 billion — against PG&E for the San Bruno blast. California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Picker said at the time that continuing safety citations against the utility made him doubt that the utility had embraced a culture of safety, and he raised the possibility of breaking apart the utility's gas and electric operations.