ABC local news
NTSB investigates Cupertino gas line explosion
The NTSB is investigating another gas line explosion -- this time at a condo in Cupertino.
Is this going to be an annual occurrence in the Bay Area now?PG&E: Cupertino Pipe Made From Problem Material
Posted: 3:29 pm PDT September 3, 2011Updated: 5:49 pm PDT September 3, 2011
CUPERTINO, Calif. -- PG&E crews planned to return to a Cupertino neighborhood Sunday where a gas leak from a pipe made of a problem-laden material caused an explosion days before.
On Wednesday afternoon the owner of a Cupertino condominium said she smelled natural gas but did not report it.
Soon thereafter, something in her condo exploded so violently that the doors flew off and a fire started inside.
PG&E said that as crews investigated the blast, they found six more gas leaks in other parts of the complex.
“The number of leaks we have in this community is concerning us. It's a concern we take very seriously,” said PG&E spokesperson Brian Swanson.
According to the utility, all of the leaks had been fixed as of Saturday morning.
On Sunday, PG&E crews planned to go to door-to-door in the neighborhood surrounding the complex, answering questions and checking appliances.
Officials said they would also continue to assess the vulnerability of its 1,200-mile network of plastic gas distribution pipe.
A report recently-published in the San Jose Mercury News found that the cracked gas pipe blamed for the Cupertino explosion was made of material that has a history of failures.
The newspaper found that a plastic gas pipe was made with a material called Aldyl-A, which has been the subject of at least two federal safety advisories as well as a number of lawsuits and accidents across the nation within the last decade.
Company officials acknowledged that the two-inch distribution line was made with the same material, and that it would begin reviewing its gas lines built before 1973 and made of that material.
Copyright 2011 by KTVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
...and my home just has to be a few hundred feet from a major pipeline as old as San Bruno's
