It was a normal Thursday evening in the Crestmoor neighborhood. People were getting home from work, kids were finishing homework, and dinner was on the stove. Then, at 6:11 PM on September 9, 2010, the ground basically turned into a blowtorch. A 30-inch steel natural gas pipeline—Line 132—ruptured with such violence that it shot a section of pipe 28 feet into the air. What followed was a literal wall of fire. If you saw the footage back then, you remember the "mushroom cloud" that looked more like a war zone than a Bay Area suburb.
The San Bruno gas explosion wasn't just a "freak accident." That’s the first thing you have to understand. It was the result of decades of corporate negligence, shoddy record-keeping, and a regulatory system that was basically asleep at the wheel. Eight people died. Dozens were injured. Thirty-eight homes were completely erased from the map.
The pipe that shouldn't have been there
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation found something pretty wild. The pipe that failed had a defective longitudinal seam weld. Now, in plain English, that means the way the pipe was welded together back in 1956 was messed up from the start. It was a "short-stick" of pipe that didn't even meet the specifications of the rest of the line. For over fifty years, that tiny flaw sat there like a ticking time bomb under a quiet neighborhood.
PG&E’s records were a mess. Honestly, they were worse than a mess; they were dangerously inaccurate. Their database claimed the pipe was seamless. It wasn't. Because they thought it was seamless, they didn't think they needed to perform certain types of high-pressure testing that would have caught the weak weld. They were basically flying blind.
The pressure in the line spiked right before the blast. A power failure at a terminal in Milpitas caused the regulating valves to open up. Because the pipe was already compromised by that crappy 1950s weld, it just couldn't take the stress. It unzipped.
Why the San Bruno gas explosion changed everything (and nothing)
After the smoke cleared, the finger-pointing started. And man, there was a lot of it. The NTSB eventually issued a report that was basically a scathing indictment of both PG&E and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). They called PG&E’s management of the pipeline "dysfunctional."
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They weren't exaggerating.
The federal jury eventually convicted PG&E on five counts of violating the Pipeline Safety Act and one count of obstructing an agency investigation. They tried to hide how they were prioritizing profits over safety inspections. It was a huge scandal. The company was fined $1.6 billion by the CPUC—the largest penalty ever leveled against a utility in US history at that time.
But did it fix the culture? That's the part that keeps people in Northern California up at night.
Since the San Bruno gas explosion, we’ve seen the Camp Fire. We’ve seen the Tubbs Fire. We’ve seen the company go through bankruptcy—twice. While the San Bruno disaster forced the industry to move away from "grandfathering" old pipes (the practice of letting old pipes skip modern safety tests), the underlying issue of aging infrastructure remains a massive, multi-billion dollar headache.
The human cost of a "bad weld"
You can talk about pressure stats and seam welds all day, but the stories from Crestmoor are what actually stick with you. Like the tragedy of the Bullis family. Greg Bullis lost his wife, his son, and his mother in the blast. He was just running an errand when his entire world evaporated.
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The fire was so hot that firefighters couldn't even get close to the shut-off valves. It took PG&E over 90 minutes to manually close the valves and stop the flow of gas. Think about that. An hour and a half of a high-pressure blowtorch fueled by a 30-inch main. By the time the gas was off, the neighborhood looked like it had been firebombed.
What most people get wrong about pipeline safety
A lot of people think that if they don't smell gas, they're safe. Not necessarily. The San Bruno line was a transmission line, not a distribution line. Transmission lines carry massive amounts of gas at high pressure across long distances. They don't always have that "rotten egg" smell (mercaptan) added to them in the same way your home stove line does.
Also, "pitting" or external corrosion isn't always the culprit. In San Bruno, the pipe looked okay from the outside. The problem was internal—a manufacturing defect buried under layers of earth for five decades.
Lessons that still haven't fully sunk in
If you live near a major utility easement, you've probably wondered if you're sitting on another Line 132. The reality is that the US has millions of miles of aging pipelines. Replacing them is slow. It's expensive. And it's incredibly disruptive.
The industry shifted toward "Hydrostatic Testing" after San Bruno. This involves filling a pipe with water at much higher pressures than gas to see if it leaks. It's effective, but it means shutting down gas service for days or weeks. Some utilities are still resistant to doing it as often as they should because of the cost.
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Realities of the $1.6 billion fine
While that number sounds huge, it's important to look at where the money went. A lot of it was "credited" back toward safety improvements—meaning the company was basically ordered to spend money on things they should have been doing anyway. Critics argue this wasn't a punishment so much as a forced capital expenditure.
How to actually stay safe (Actionable Steps)
You can't dig up the street yourself to check the welds. But you aren't totally helpless either. If you live in a "High Consequence Area" (HCA), you have specific rights and resources.
- Check the National Pipeline Mapping System. The NPMS public map viewer allows you to see which major transmission pipelines run through your ZIP code. You won't see the exact line to your house, but you'll see the big ones.
- Watch for "The Markers." Look for those yellow poles near intersections or open fields. They have emergency numbers on them. Save that number in your phone. If you see construction crews digging near those markers without a "Call Before You Dig" (811) flag, say something.
- Pressure your local reps. Pipeline safety is regulated at both the state and federal levels (PHMSA). Most changes only happen when there is sustained political pressure. San Bruno happened because the CPUC was too "cozy" with the companies it regulated.
- Know the "Hiss." If you hear a loud whistling or hissing sound coming from the ground, don't look for the source. Run. Do not start your car. Do not use a cell phone until you are at least a quarter-mile away. Sparks ignite gas.
The San Bruno gas explosion was a preventable tragedy. It was a failure of engineering, a failure of corporate ethics, and a failure of government oversight. We owe it to the people of Crestmoor to remember that "safe enough" is never actually safe when you're dealing with high-pressure infrastructure. If you're living in an older suburb, the best thing you can do is stay informed about what's running under your feet and demand transparency from the utilities that put it there.
Check your local city planning office for any "Integrity Management Plans" submitted by your utility provider. These documents are public record and will tell you exactly how often they are pigging (inspecting) the lines in your neighborhood. Knowledge is the only real protection you have against "shoddy records."