Answers Still Vague as Federal, State Officials Hold Meeting About Fire

The atmosphere was tepid Monday night at Church of the Highlands as residents gathered for a meeting with federal and state officials to discuss the ongoing investigation into Thursday's fire and explosion in the Glenview Avenue area.

As speculation still circulates about what could have caused the gas pipeline rupture, officials, with Congresswoman Jackie Speier leading the meeting, tried to give information as specific as possible. But answers were still vague.

Someone asked Christopher Hart, the vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, whether he could estimate what could have caused the gas explosion without putting his "PC hat" on for the moment.

Hart said investigators are looking into all causes that could have sparked the rupture. But the only answer he currently had to that question, he said, was, "I don't have a clue."

The NTSB has finished their initial investigation and is now focusing on reviewing documents and interviewing witnesses. The safety board finished examining pipes that were laid under the gas line that exploded and concluded they did not contribute to the blast, Hart said.

It was initially unclear whether the excavation and installation of those pipes damaged the gas line, he said. Investigators have now turned the ditch over to the city of San Bruno and PG&E so infrastructure can be restored, Hart said.

Transportation safety board investigators are now looking at documents from PG&E, visiting control and monitoring sites, and examining valves that have been preserved for evidence, Hart said.

The transportation safety board is also looking at seismic records to see if any activity has occurred recently that could have affected the pipes, Hart said. The agency has also begun to receive results of toxicology tests conducted on PG&E employees. So far the workers have tested negative for drugs and alcohol, Hart said. "We'll be interviewing witnesses, including people from PG&E, over the next few days," he said.

The NTSB  sent the 28-foot section of pipe that burst out of the ground during the explosion to its labs in Washington, D.C., for further inspection, along with two other 10-foot sections of pipe.

Meanwhile, residents said they were still skeptical about the natural gas pipes that ran through their neighborhood.

The discovery that natural gas pipelines run through many residential areas has now sparked an exploration into the thousands of miles of gas lines that exist throughout the state.

Several people had concerns about the fact that pipes were laid over the San Andres fault, and they asked whether it was possible for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to move the pipes somewhere else to lessen any further possible impact on homeowners.

Geisha Williams, PG&E's senior vice president of energy delivery, said the company already has a program in place to examine its pipes that exist over fault lines, but said it would consider that option.

Others questioned the initial response to the gas explosion.

When asked why the pipe's valves couldn't have just been shut off when the pipe exploded, Williams said the fire was too immense to allow workers to reach all the valves. Ultimately, she said, it wasn't until more than an hour and a half after the pipe broke that responders were actually able to shut off the gas in that area.

One resident was adamant that he saw a backhoe working on someone's driveway on a nearby corner before the explosion, and asked whether that could have caused the fire. However, officials said, that construction was unrelated.

Speier said she was especially concerned that residents couldn't find out specific information about whether pipelines run underneath someone's home. PG&E officials said some of that information is available to people, but, with Sept. 11, security of pipeline locations has been heightened.

She said those rules should be changed for the safety of residents in the future.

"I think it's important that PG&E make that information available to any customer that requests it," she said.

Bay City News contributed to this report.