SF crews repair ruptured water and gas pipelines after evacuations on busy street
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco Fire Crews responded to the call at 2:38 p.m. Monday about a water main break at the intersection of Union and Fillmore Streets. When they arrived they found the area had turned into swirling river of muddy water, flooding the street and the basement of one building.
What caused the greatest alarm wasn't the flooding, but the smell of natural gas.
"There is a significant amount of gas that you can actually see disturbances in the air and when the water was on the ground we could see the gas bubbling through the road surface," said San Francisco Battalion Chief Garreth Miller.
Fire officials say they immediately evacuated two buildings on either side of Union Street, worried about residents' and workers' safety.
"We removed occupants from the immediate vicinity because of the hazard from the natural gas leak," said Chief Miller, "That was our biggest concern, was that it could accumulate in a structure and find an ignition source."
"They started calling people in the building to see if everything's OK or not," said Al Nayeri, a San Francisco who had been driving down from Sonoma when he received the call about his home near to the leak.
For hours, residents were stuck outside as crews worked to turn off the water and then brought in heavy equipment to break through the concrete and find the broken water and gas lines. Union Street was closed for several blocks and part of Fillmore was also blocked by fire vehicles and yellow caution tape.
"So we haven't been able to get back in," said Nayeri, several hours after the incident, "I have no idea how long it's going to take for us to get back in."
Pacific Gas & Electric punched through the concrete on either side of the pipeline break and by 5:15 p.m. they had capped off the gas pipe.
Workers say it appears the water pipeline burst first and that caused the gas line to rupture. Crews say the two pipelines run in a parallel along Union Street.
Nearby stores shut down in the middle of the afternoon, losing water, gas, and customers who couldn't get through.
"It's almost five o'clock and everybody is out doing last-minute shopping and this is a busy area anyway, Union and Fillmore," said Jim Hayden, a San Francisco resident who lives down the block and who had walked over to go to one of the stores.
Gunilla Eisenberg's skincare salon Isa Alex Skincare on Union Street had to reschedule facials, losing an afternoon of business.
"It's very hard. You're losing income. You're inconveniencing people who already have made changes in their own schedule to come and see you for appointments," said Eisenberg.
San Francisco has had water pipelines burst in the past due to the age of the infrastructure. Some pipes being used now date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Workers at the site say the pipe that burst Monday dates to the 1960s, and they are still investigating what caused the pipe to burst.
Jana Katsuyama is a reporter for KTVU. Email Jana at jana.katsuyama@fox.com and follow her on Twitter @JanaKTVU or Facebook @NewsJana or ktvu.com.