PG&E has confirmed that a twenty-four inch natural gas pipeline in San Bruno, CA ruptured during the evening of September 9, 2010, causing a fireball measured at more than 50 feet in height that burned for several hours. The fire started at 6:00 pm, just before sunset, and was announced as being contained at 11 pm. It igniting dozens of fires that have destroyed more than 50 homes and killed at least one person. There are injuries reported, but no details are available yet. The explosion produced a crater that is at least 15 feet deep, twenty feet long and thirty feet wide. The rupture and explosion damaged nearby water mains, delaying firefighting efforts for more than half an hour.

There is breaking news video coverage available at KGO TV in San Francisco. KGO has also started a still photo library that currently includes more than 80 dramatic photos of the devastated neighborhoods. Look for the page headline of 1 dead after large explosion, fire in San Bruno.

This post will be updated as others provide additional details.

Update: (9/10/2010 0317) The San Jose Mercury News puts the injury total at more than two dozen with critical injuries. San Bruno explosion and fire destroys dozens of homes; one dead, many injured. This article includes some first hand accounts and the following summary from an experienced, but retired, first responder.

 

"What makes this fire so devastating and so difficult is essentially it creates the equivalent of an eight-alarm fire in the heart of a residential neighborhood," retired Contra Costa Fire Battalion Chief Dave George said. "It behaves differently than most other fires because it grows in all directions at the same time. Whatever it wants to do, it does."

George said the heat of the fire would be upward of 1,200 degrees, which could create radiant heat hot enough to burn a couch inside a brick home through the window.

"This is really a worst-case scenario," he said. "The closest thing to something like this is when a wildland fire hits a residential neighborhood."