Evacuations lifted for thousands after gas pipeline fire

PUC investigating if grass fire sparked by fallen power line may be to blame

BAY POINT » A state agency is investigating a fire that sparked inside a Chevron natural gas pipeline vault Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of about 4,000 people from1,400 nearby homes until Thursday afternoon, authorities said.

It was still unclear later Thursday whether a nearby grass fire ignited by a falling power line also caused the fire in the pipeline vault. The California Public Utilities Commission has launched a probe into what happened, said Christopher Chow, an agency spokesman.

The evacuation order, issued late Wednesday night, covered an area in Bay Point between Bailey and Loftus roads and from the railroad tracks south to Hanlon Way. It was lifted about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, officials said.

Willow Cove Elementary School in Pittsburg closed for the day because of the incident.

There were no reports of any related injuries as

of Thursday.

“The goal was to prevent any injury and to keep anything from being damaged,” said Terence Carey, an assistant fire chief with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. “In that sense, it is a positive outcome.”

Fire crews first responded to a small grass fire Wednesday night near Suisun and Poinsettia avenues. Soon after, firefighters learned about an active fire in the underground vault that encases part of a Chevron natural gas pipeline, burning about 15 feet from the grass fire.

At 11:21 p.m. Wednesday, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet that homes in the area were instructed to evacuate.

In a statement late Wednesday, Chevron spokesman Braden Reddall said that at about 8 p.m. the company learned of a grass fire caused by a fallen electrical power line that “started a fire near our valve junction on the Northern California Gas Line near Pittsburg.”

According to PG& E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian, the grass fire started when birds “came into contact” with and toppled a power line on the border of Bay Point and Pittsburg.

Reddall said Chevron “immediately shut down the ( pipeline) and dispatched a field team to investigate” and worked with the fire agencies to evacuate the area.

Many of the evacuees gathered at the Calvary Temple Church on Evora Road in Concord. The American Red Cross opened those doors and the main gym to Los Medanos College in Pittsburg and served breakfast to 460 people. According to the Red Cross, 72 families spent the night at the church, and 40 to 45 stayed at the college.

Contra Costa County Animal Services staff also came to the church and college with leashes, crates and food to help care for displaced animals.

“People are slightly distraught. It’s very disorienting,” said Jason Bishop, ex-

“People are slightly distraught. It’s very disorienting. We’re trying to put a smile on their face, encourage them andmake the best of a bad situation.” — Jason Bishop, executive pastor at Calvary Temple Church

ecutive pastor at Calvary Temple Church. “We’re trying to put a smile on their face, encourage them and make the best of a bad situation.”

Officials said Thursday the temperature in the vault had to be lowered and pressure in the pipeline decreased, a slow process. That needed to be done to ensure safety before sending people back to the nearby homes.

Cary Wages, a Chevron spokesman, said at a news conference that the company spent the night releasing natural gas from the high-pressure pipeline and injecting nitrogen into it to extinguish the fire.

The venting process “resulted in a loud, shrieking noise that has been described as a jet- engine-like sound,” according to ConFire. The agency put out a report on Twitter about the noise and advised residents not to call 911 about it.

Carey, of ConFire, said the pipe’s pressure was reduced from480 pounds per square inch to 25 psi.

ConFire spokesman Steve Hill said that infrared imaging from a Pittsburg Police Department drone showed the temperature in the pipeline at its hottest was 400 degrees. Later in the day, he said, crews f looded the vault around the pipeline with water to continue to cool it down.

The pipeline is about 200 feet fromthe nearest home.

Bay Point resident Paul Nguyen, 31, who lives with his uncle, aunt and grandmother, said everyone in his home was asleep when they received a call from his cousin about 12:45 a.m. Thursday.

The message: Get out as fast as you can.

“It was scary,” he said. “We didn’t know what the full news was, so we’re wondering, ‘ What if it explodes?’ We just moved as fast as we could.”

Evacuees also gathered overnight at the parking lot of the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station on Bailey Road. BART put out an advisory about 3:30 a.m. encouraging drivers to park at another station or get dropped off at the station because parking was so limited. BART trains ran normally all day.

Marquitta Hartwell, 36, was among the roughly 40 people in the Calvary Temple Church lobby Thursday morning. She had been evacuated by police who knocked on the door of the Bay Point home where she lives with her mother, father and son; she spent her nervous energy by joining the effort as a volunteer at the church, helping to ensure everyone had food and was checked in.

“I figured we were all here,” she said, “so I might as well do something to help.”