San Bruno ExplosionIgnited by a massive gas-pipeline explosion, a huge fire sweeps through a neighborhood in San Bruno, California (see map), on September 9.The blaze occurred when a pipe mysteriously ruptured Thursday evening, setting off thousand-foot-high (300-meter-high) fireballs and resulting flames that killed at least six in the suburb south of San Francisco as of Friday morning, the Associated Press reported."It looked like hell on Earth," resident Bob Pellegrini told the AP of the San Bruno explosion. "I have never seen a ball of fire that huge."(Related pictures: "California Fires Rage, Visible in Space" [2007].)Some people in the neighborhood had been complaining of a natural gas odor before the San Bruno explosion. Those reports are now under investigation, Pacific Gas and Electric Company officials told the Los Angeles Times.

Photograph by Paul Sakuma, AP

San Bruno Fire Pictures: "Hell on Earth" in California

A gas line explosion that unleashed deadly, thousand-foot-high fireballs reduced blocks of San Bruno, California, to "hell on earth" on Thursday, one resident said.

September 12, 2010