Crime & Safety
Gas Fire Burns Through Water Main, Displacing 10 Overnight In Menlo Park
BREAKING: Twenty residents were evacuated from the apartment complex after the fire and flooding, officials said.
MENLO PARK, CA – A gas leak that caught fire and burned through a water main in Menlo Park Tuesday displaced about 10 people for the night.
A Pacific Gas and Electric worker was doing electrical work in a hole near an apartment complex in the 300 block of Sand Hill Circle when a spark ignited a hidden natural gas leak at around 8:30 p.m., Menlo Park fire
Chief Harold Schapelhouman said.
The worker was wearing flash protection gear and got out uninjured.
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The broken water line put out the six-foot flames by 9 p.m., but then started spraying 10 feet into the air and flooding the area, Schapelhouman said.
Once the fire was out, the gas leak started to spread, so 20 residents of the apartment building were evacuated.
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About half of the residents were taken to the Rosewood Sand Hill hotel, which "very graciously" put up the victims for the night, Schapelhouman said.
PG&E crews shut down the gas within 20 minutes, and the water was shut off within 45 minutes.
The remaining eight to 10 residents who had not yet been taken to the hotel were able to reenter their units and did not need emergency accommodation, Schapelhouman said.
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--Bay City News/Shutterstock image
