The giant fireball blasted more than 100 feet into the air and shut down a local highway when a public works employee was using a front-loaded to work near a gas pipeline at the site.
A natural gas pipeline has exploded at a sheriff’s gun range in California, injuring 11 people and shutting down a busy highway.
The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. pipe exploded at the gun range for the Fresno County Sheriff when an equipment operator was using a front-loader to construct a dirt berm that would confine gunfire to the range while inmates cleaned up nearby, according to an Associated Press report.
The inmates were the ones injured in the blast, which also caused traffic headed both north and south on nearby Highway 99 to stop at about 2:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon as flames shot more than 100 feet into the air.
The AP quoted 42-year-old Kevin Ling, a witness, who said that he saw flames getting “bigger and bigger,” and that the fireball was perhaps 15 feet wide and “like out of a movie.”
The public works employee who had been operating the front-loader had been working all day on the range, which hospitalized the worker as well as 10 inmates. Four were sent to a burn and trauma unit at a local hospital, with three in critical condition and one in serious condition. The other seven were taken to two other hospitals.
The sheriff’s office was still investigating what happened at the time of the explosion and if the driver was digging in the ground near a marked gas line. Authorities were still waiting to speak with the injured worker to find out what he was doing at the time.
It took about an hour to extinguish the flame, and Highway 99 was reopened about three hours later.
PG&E has been under fire for recent alleged safety lapses, including a 2010 pipeline blast that killed eight people in San Bruno, a San Francisco suburb, which that National Transportation Safety Board said was due to faulty safety practices at PG&E.
