California gas-line explosion, A natural gas pipeline explosion at a California sheriff’s gun range shot flames well over 100 feet into the air, left 11 people injured and brought traffic on a busy highway to a halt, authorities and witnesses said.
The explosion on a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. pipe happened at the Fresno County Sheriff’s gun range while an equipment operator was using a front-loader to build a dirt berm to confine gunfire to the range, the sheriff’s department said. A group of county jail inmates were doing cleanup work nearby and most were injured in the blast.
Traffic heading north and south on Highway 99 in Fresno was halted by the explosion at about 2:30 p.m. as flames towered over the roadway, the California Highway Patrol reported.Freelance photographer Kevin Ling, 42, was driving by shortly after the blast when he saw fire flying into the sky.
“As I got closer, the flames were just bigger and bigger,” he said. “It was shooting up to 200 feet or more, and a fireball maybe 10 to 15 feet in diameter. It was like out of a movie.”
“My window was up and my AC was on and it still felt like a furnace inside my car,” he added.
The 12-inch diameter pipeline involved in the fire belongs to PG&E, said Pete Martinez of the Fresno Fire Department. It’s unclear if the front-loader was being used to dig at the time of the explosion, he said.
The driver of the front-loader was a county public works employee who had been working at the shooting range all day, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said. Ten inmates and the operator were hospitalized, she said.
Traffic heading north and south on Highway 99 in Fresno was halted by the explosion at about 2:30 p.m. as flames towered over the roadway, the California Highway Patrol reported.Freelance photographer Kevin Ling, 42, was driving by shortly after the blast when he saw fire flying into the sky.
“As I got closer, the flames were just bigger and bigger,” he said. “It was shooting up to 200 feet or more, and a fireball maybe 10 to 15 feet in diameter. It was like out of a movie.”
“My window was up and my AC was on and it still felt like a furnace inside my car,” he added.
The 12-inch diameter pipeline involved in the fire belongs to PG&E, said Pete Martinez of the Fresno Fire Department. It’s unclear if the front-loader was being used to dig at the time of the explosion, he said.
The driver of the front-loader was a county public works employee who had been working at the shooting range all day, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said. Ten inmates and the operator were hospitalized, she said.
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