10,000 gallons of oil spew onto LA streets
LOS ANGELES — A geyser of oil sprayed onto buildings and puddled in knee-high pools of crude on Los Angeles streets after a valve on a highpressure pipeline failed early yesterday.
About 10,000 gallons of oil spewed 20 feet high over about a half-mile of the industrial area of Atwater Village about 12:15 a.m., said Fire Capt. Jaime Moore.
Four businesses near the border of Glendale were affected, as well as a strip club that was evacuated after oil came through air vents. The parking lot was closed, and patrons and employees were forced to leave behind their crude-coated cars.
Crews were able to remotely shut off the 20-inch line after about 45 minutes.
Four people at a medical business a half-block away were evaluated with respiratory complaints, and two people were transferred to a hospital in stable condition, Moore said.
Quick-thinking workers used sand from a nearby concrete company to build a makeshift dike.
“They created a pool and were able to hem in much of the oil,” Moore said.
By dawn, an environmental-cleaning company had vacuumed up most of the mess. Crews put down absorbent material to sop up the remaining crude and then used high-pressure hoses to wash the streets.
Officials initially had said 50,000 gallons had spilled, but that number was revised downward after the vacuuming began.
Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said there was no visible evidence that the oil entered storm drains, which empty into the Los Angeles River. But he said it’s possible some oil seeped under manhole covers.
The valve failed at a transfer pumping station along a pipeline that runs from Bakersfield to Texas, Moore said.
The company that runs the line, Plains All American Pipeline, did not respond to a request for comment.