Coming from Southern California, I just assumed the San Bruno fire was one of your typical wind-and-heat-fueled wildfires. We see them all the time down here, and I know more than a few people who've lost their hillside homes to mother nature. But this San Bruno fire is something else altogether.
When I first heard about it I remember thinking, "The weather isn't all that hot today, I wonder how that fire got so out of control?" When I heard that San Bruno is only two miles from the San Francisco airport, it didn't make any sense at all. That's a heavily populated city milieu, not the rolling hills we're so used to seeing go up in flames.
[Click image for large view. San Bruno @ center, SF airport @ right.]Well, it turns out this disaster is indeed something else altogether. It seems this neighborhood plain exploded, thanks to a faulty 62-year-old gas main first installed by Pacific Gas & Electric in 1948. Let me put it another way:
The whole damn neighborhood got blown to smithereens.More fairly startling photos here.
No comments:
Post a Comment