First-Responders Recall California Inferno

It’s been nearly a week since a massive explosion and fire rocked San Bruno, California.

Now, police and firefighters who were first on scene are telling their stories of what happened. From leaving back-to-school night, to baseball practices, each knew exactly what they needed to do when they got the news.

From CNN:

South San Francisco firefighter Anthony Ottoboni was at his son’s baseball practice when he got the news.

“My wife looked right at me and said, ‘Go.’ “

Capt. Bill Forester of the San Bruno Fire Department was on duty.

“We looked out the back door and saw a fireball,” he said.

John Priolo, also with the fire department, recalls rushing to work and seeing the “walking wounded” arrive at the station.

On Tuesday, first-responders gathered near the fire site to talk about the heroics of others, including citizens, last week. They spoke of the strong fraternity of the 400 firefighters, paramedics and police officers who thronged to the neighborhood.

They mentioned how their training prepared them, but there are some things training can’t foresee.

“Somebody said it was like they took a Saturn V rocket and tipped it upside down at the blastoff,” Forester said. The high-pitched roar of gas sounded like a jet engine, he added.

Explosion, Fire Rock San Bruno

All of the news channels here in the Bay Area are tuned to a massive fire which was apparently caused by a natural gas explosion in a residential neighborhood of San Bruno, a suburb of San Francisco.

Witnesses are reporting that a loud explosion was felt just before the flames erupted around 6 p.m.

Live coverage can be found on KPIX.

From the Associated Press:

The fire is burning in the town of San Bruno a few miles from San Francisco International Airport, prompting speculation it was sparked by a plane crash. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the agency has no record of a crash. Spokesmen for local airports also said they knew of no missing planes.

Pacific Gas and Electric, the utility company that serves the San Francisco Bay area, is looking into the possibility of a natural gas explosion but had no additional information, said spokesman J.D. Guidi.

Live footage on KPIX-TV showed at least a dozen homes destroyed, with flames reaching as high as 60 feet in the air as the fire fueled itself on the burning homes. Planes and helicopters flew over the neighborhood dumping water in an effort to stanch the flames.

From KPIX:

San Bruno Fire Chief Dennis Haag told CBS 5 that he believes a high pressure gas line blew just after 6 p.m. Thursday evening.

Pacific Gas and Electric is looking into the possibility of a natural gas explosion but had no additional information, said spokesman J.D. Guidi.

Live footage from Chopper 5 showed at least a dozen homes destroyed, with flames reaching as high as 60 feet in the air as the fire fueled itself on the burning homes. Planes and helicopters flew over the neighborhood dumping water in an effort to stanch the flames.

A person who answered the phone at Seton Medical Center in nearby Daly City but did not want to give her name said the hospital was on a triage alert because of people being brought to the hospital with injuries caused by the fire. She could provide no details about the number of injured people.

Oil Rig Explodes off Louisiana Coast

Here we go again…

According to reports, an offshore oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico this morning. The explosion took place west of the site of the April blast that caused a massive oil spill and clean up effort.

It sounds like this explosion is not as bad as the previous one so let’s hope that all are accounted for and that we don’t have another massive spill.

From the Associated Press:

The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths.

The platform owned by Mariner Energy is in about 2,500 feet of water, the Coast Guard said, and was not currently producing.

About 206 million gallons of oil from an undersea well spilled into the Gulf after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.

From CNN:

The accident took place 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana on the Vermilion Oil rig 380, which is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy.

The Coast Guard has multiple helicopters, an airplane and several Coast Guard cutters en route. It’s unknown if there are any injuries.

Oil Rig Explodes Off Louisiana Coast

The Coast Guard resumed its search this morning for 11 workers who are missing after a massive explosion aboard an oil platform off the Louisiana coast.

From the Associated Press:

About 100 workers had made it to a supply boat after the blast, then were plucked from the Gulf of Mexico by Coast Guard rescuers. After a slow-moving trek across the waters, the workers finally made it ashore at Port Fourchon earlier Thursday where they were checked by doctors and brought to a hotel in suburban New Orleans to awaiting relatives.

At the hotel, one worker said he was asleep on the rig when the explosion happened, was awakened by alarms and scrambled to get on a life boat.

“I’ve been working offshore 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said the man, who like other workers at the hotel, declined to give his name.

The rig, where exploratory drilling was being done about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana, exploded late Tuesday, sending workers scurrying for safety. Seventeen people were injured in the blast and taken to hospitals, four critically, in what could be one of the nation’s deadliest offshore drilling accidents of the past half-century.

Explosion on Northwest Airlines Flight

A 23-year-old Nigerian man named Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, apparently tried to light a powdery substance aboard a Northwest Airlines flight before landing in Detroit this afternoon. Initial reports said that a man had tried to light either firecrackers or fireworks but it now appears that it could have been much worse.

There are rumors circulating on CNN and other news networks that he could have terrorist ties.

From CNN:

A passenger ignited fireworks Friday at the end of a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, a Delta Air Lines spokeswoman said.

The passenger was immediately subdued, according to Susan Elliott, spokeswoman for Delta, Northwest’s parent company. The incident resulted in some minor injuries, Elliott said.

A passenger was later placed in custody, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement.

President Obama, who is spending the holidays in his home state of Hawaii, was briefed on the incident during a secure phone call with aides and “instructed that all appropriate measures be taken to increase security for air travel,” White House spokesman Bill Burton said. The president made no changes to his schedule, Burton said.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement Friday saying that air passengers “may notice additional screening measures put into place to ensure the safety of the traveling public on domestic and international flights.”