NTBS to investigate San Francisco gas explosion

UPDATE: 2/7/2019 10:06 a.m. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate a natural gas explosion on a San Francisco street that sent flames into the air, damaging five buildings and sending panicked residents into the streets.

NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said Thursday that an eight-person team will travel to San Francisco and that it will release information as it becomes available.

City fire officials say a crew digging on street to install fiber-optic wires in the city’s Richmond neighborhood cut a natural gas line Wednesday.

Flames shot above the rooftops of nearby three-story buildings and burned for more than two hours until utility workers shut off the gas fueling the fire.

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CBS SF– At least four buildings were ablaze following a construction site gas line explosion that ignited an inferno in a San Francisco neighborhood Wednesday afternoon.

There were also an unknown number of rescues in progress, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.

The incident happened at the corner of Geary Blvd. and Parker Ave. at 1:18 p.m. Wednesday in the city’s Jordan Park neighborhood between Laurel Heights and the Richmond District. A two-story building on the corner, site of Hong Kong Lounge II restaurant, was in flames.

Five restaurant workers originally reported as missing were later accounted for, the fire department said.

“I was walking through the intersection just before it exploded and I looked up and saw a bunch of people in front of me screaming,” said witness Michael Comstock “So I turned around I saw the flame growing behind me. It erupted and thought it was a bomb. So I just started taking off down the street.”

The fire reached a third alarm as of 1:50 p.m. A total of four buildings were involved, according to the fire department.

San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said workers with a private contractor were installing a fiber cable line when they ripped into a gas line with a backhoe. The flames enveloped the backhoe and spread quickly to the nearby restaurant.

“We were in the store, we heard almost like an air noise,” Michael, a worker at the nearby Verizon store, told KPIX 5. “It sounded like pressure was building up. I saw people running across the street so I ran out. We saw flames everywhere. Construction workers saying get back. They said someone is probably dead. I’m just hoping everything is okay.”

Evacuations were underway according to fire department radio transmissions. People were being urged to avoid the area.

The heavily-transited Geary Blvd. was closed in both directions at the site of the fire. A number of San Francisco Muni routes have been rerouted.

At least one school in the area, Roosevelt Middle School three blocks west of the fire, was reportedly being evacuated.