Six people were hospitalized after a home exploded near Hayward, California.
75 firefighters arrived to battle the three-alarm blaze. The explosion and fire left three buildings destroyed, and neighboring homes badly damaged.
Here’s how the story
began that day:
- At 7:35 am, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) was notified that a third-party construction crew had damaged an underground gas line.
- PG&E sent out their workers, and by 9:25 am, the damaged lines had been isolated and the gas leaks had been stopped.
- However, the gas had been released at several locations, and the home exploded at 9:25am.
The construction company was doing an improvement project in this neighborhood that involved new sidewalks, bikeways, and pavement repairs.
A spokesperson for the construction company told a local news outlet that one of its subcontractors had inadvertently hit a gas line, and that the incident should have never happened.
Federal investigators are working to determine why this gas leak developed into a massive fire and explosion. They have stated that the steel gas lines were installed in the 1940s, and have confirmed that the line was damaged during grading work.
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