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San Bruno CA Explosion, Fire Near San Francisco Kills 4: Photos

by Amy Judd | September 10, 2010 at 07:10 am

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An Explosion in a San Bruno California Neighborhood Has Killed Four and Destroyed 38 Homes

Update: 3:48 pm PT - The fire is now fully contained.

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About 15 acres of San Bruno has been burned and some residents are still missing, but police and rescue workers are still searching the ashes. The San Jose Mercury News reports that the area has now been declared a crime scene and people will be kept away until the investigation is complete.

Several people are also critically injured after the explosion, thought to have been caused by a ruptured gas line according to the NYT, has destroyed dozens of homes in this area located near San Francisco.

San Bruno Explosion: Twitter Alerts

“I can confirm that our death toll is at four and we do have investigators at the scene and they will be joining a search and recovery mission,” San Mateo deputy coroner Michelle Rippy said.

The explosion occurred at about 6pm on Thursday night but the full extent of the damage will not be known until later on Friday morning. Some residents nearby reported that the explosion was so loud that they thought a plane had crashed nearby.

Residents lost all their belongings, including their cars and some homes were completely destroyed in the initial blast.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the utility company that serves the area, said one of its gas lines had ruptured. But the company cautioned that the cause of the blast had not been determined, The Associated Press reported.

About 100 homes have also been damaged, and the water supply to the region was knocked out so firefighters had to pump water into the area from about two miles away.

On Friday morning the fire created from the explosion was about 75 percent contained.