San Bruno Gas Explosion

September 9, 2010
The recent natural gas line explosion and subsequent fire in San Bruno, CA clearly illustrated the need for timely, focused and detailed information for decision-makers planning to mitigate any impact to operations presented by such a situation. Fortunately, NC4 customers were supplied with a plethora of information that addressed this need - almost immediately after the situation began and for days afterward. Customers with personnel operating in the area or assets transiting area roadways were able to extrapolate the intelligence necessary to develop effective contingency plans in part due to the diligence and robustness of the NC4 ESA solution.

NC4 analysts leverage proprietary technology that scans numerous worldwide emergency response information outlets. When San Bruno Fire Department units were first mobilized for the initial explosion call-out, this program alerted our analyst team of the dispatch and allowed our team to process the information well before traditional media sources were able to. Our initial alert was produced at 18:24 PDT, 9 minutes after the initial explosion occurred, 13 minutes before local media picked-up the story and well before the ensuing fire destroyed over 50 structures in the area and prompted significant secondary effects that severely impacted business operations in the immediate area.

NC4 Coverage
Analysts in the NC4 Incident Monitoring Center (NIMC) produced an initial alert for the gas line explosion at 18:24 PDT on 9/9/10. The NC4 team updated this alert continuously through the evening of 9/9/10 and provided our customer base with the latest in-depth information regarding associated roadway closures, residential evacuations, weather conditions, firefighting efforts, power outages and any expected impacts to nearby San Francisco International Airport. In all, the NIMC team produced 30 updates to the original alert over a span of five days.

Selected Updates

NC4 Incident Monitoring Center issued the following alerts:

• Firefighters are responding to reports of an explosion in the area.  9/9/10 18:24 PDT
  
  
• Explosion believed to have been caused by ruptured natural gas line; roads closed.
  9/9/10 19:43 PDT
  

• Lt. Governor Maldonado has declared a State-of-Emergency in the area.  9/9/10 23:39
  

• Fire now contained; searches remain ongoing.  9/10/10 12:36 PDT
  
  
• Many area residents allowed to return home today at noon.  9/12/10 08:13 PDT