NTSB investigation: PG&E says crews attempted to alert residents before Hayward gas explosion
Before a home near Hayward exploded last month and sent three people to the hospital with serious injuries, Pacific Gas & Electric crews knocked on doors to alert anyone inside the home of a gas leak in the area, but no one responded, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by federal investigators.
The National Transportation Safety Board report also found that a PG&E worker turned away firefighters responding to the leak because utility crews believed they did not need assistance. The report did not provide a cause for the blast but said an investigation is ongoing.
In the wake of the explosion, experts have questioned whether local authorities and PG&E, which has a troubled history of gas-safety incidents, took the appropriate steps to keep residents safe, including telling people to leave the area after the leak was discovered.
Multiple people were inside the home and a separate duplex unit at the property when it exploded, according to family members of the victims. They could not be reached for comment Thursday.
There’s no record that officials issued an evacuation order after the leak. PG&E and county fire officials have said they make evacuation decisions collaboratively on a case-by-case basis, and that further investigation is needed to answer whether an order should have been issued.
In addition to the three residents who were hospitalized, three PG&E workers suffered less serious injuries, according to the report.
PG&E declined to answer questions about the report’s findings, saying “NTSB rules restrict communications about the investigation while it is pending.” But the utility said in a statement: “Our thoughts are with the residents and our PG&E coworkers who were injured during this incident.”
According to the report, PG&E arrived at the leak site at about 7:48 a.m. on Dec. 11, about 20 minutes after the utility was notified that a construction crew damaged a gas service line running along East Lewelling Blvd. in the Ashland neighborhood in unincorporated Alameda County.
The Alameda County Fire Department arrived at around 7:51 a.m., but left soon after being rejected by PG&E. A fire department spokesperson said the firefighters deferred to PG&E because it was the “expert agency on scene.”
At around 8:18 a.m., a PG&E crew “squeezed off” the service line, which the report describes as a method to stop gas flow in small steel main or service lines by “uniformly compressing” them “between parallel bars until their inside surfaces make solid and even contact,” essentially pinching them shut.
Shortly after, PG&E then detected gas at the ground level near the home. In an interview with the NTSB, the utility crew said they had knocked on the doors of the home that exploded — as well as two neighboring homes — but were unable to reach anyone. The report does not specify when crews tried to contact residents.
At about 9:29, the crew squeezed off the main gas line and stopped gas flow in the 2-inch-diameter steel main line and .75-inch-diameter steel service line in front of the home. Minutes later, at about 9:37 a.m., the home at 867 East Lewelling Boulevard exploded, according to the report.
The explosion is the latest in a series of gas-safety incidents involving PG&E, evoking memories of a 2010 blast in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed dozens of homes after an aging pipeline owned by the utility ruptured. Investigations into those incidents found slow response times and other operational failures.
In response to the San Bruno tragedy, the California Public Utilities Commission, which is investigating the latest explosion, began fining gas companies and utilities for violating state and federal gas safety rules.
Over the past decade and a half, the agency has cited PG&E, which serves 4.5 million Northern California gas customers, 19 times for gas violations totaling more than $35 million. For comparison, Southern California Gas Co., which serves more than 20 million customers, has been cited six times, with $6.2 million in penalties.
The commission fined PG&E $1.6 million after an employee failed to follow the correct procedure for cleaning a pipeline in Napa County in 2022. That incident resulted in the death of a utility worker. PG&E was also fined $600,000 for allowing an aging copper gas pipeline in San Jose to corrode, leading to a 2018 explosion after a resident lit a match in their bathroom.
In 2019, the utility responded to a gas leak that, like the recent Alameda County accident, ignited after a contractor cut through an underground line, causing $10 million in property damage. In a subsequent report on the incident, the NTSB faulted PG&E for failing to quickly locate the valves needed to shut off the gas release.