Source: http://norcal.news, April 25, 2018
By: Bethany Klein
When most people think of environmental disasters in the San Francisco Bay Area, they almost certainly think of earthquakes, seeing that there are two major fault lines near San Francisco.
However, even though earthquakes can wreak immeasurable, unpredictable havoc, they are certainly not always to blame for sending people to hospitals.
Gas leaks are.
On Monday, April 23, 2018, a gas leak at a homeless shelter at roughly 11 a.m. Pacific Savings Time caused people to feel severely nauseous. Construction workers had been digging in an alleyway right before the leak started spreading gas vapor throughout the area with.
16 people at the Next Door Episcopal Community Services shelter – the formal name of that homeless shelter – in total were treated for potential gas poisoning at nearby hospitals.
So what happened?
Natural gas is a valuable resource that is used to heat homes and buildings, run stoves, and more. A construction crew working near that homeless shelter, in an alley that bordered the external wall of the building, pieced a two-inch main line for transporting gas, says Jose Velo, the Division Chief of the San Francisco Fire Department.
Fortunately, the gas leak was located and secured quickly, as city officials only took 35 minutes to clamp the gas line, which prevented it from spewing out anywhere else. People from the shelter were asked to remain outside for a few hours, as inspectors needed to make sure no air bubbles of gas was located anywhere inside the home.
It’s not clear if those construction workers will be disciplined, fined, or otherwise taken care of.
While the entire situation wasn’t ideal, the fact that nobody was harmed is undeniably positive. Lyanne Melendez, a news reporter for KGO-TV, a local station in San Francisco owned by ABC. Much of the news about the incident can be found on her Twitter page, @LyanneMelendez.