Geek Habitat

Check out the firey slideshow of what happened within a half mile of our house — construction crews on a road widening project cut through a 24″ or 30″ natural gas line which then promptly caught fire. Our first sign of something amiss was our power going out around 11:15 AM.

I fled to my folks as the house was rapidly getting stifling and hot due to our power being out. I wandered outside with Sara and chatted with fellow work-from-home neighbors a couple doors down. We all had basic info gleaned from either radio or cellphones — gas main on fire at Blanco Rd. and Huebner Rd. We could see a little bit of smoke for awhile and of course the news helicopters started arriving on scene (leading me to joke to Justin, on the phone, that I hoped they didn’t collide or they’d land right on us; at one point there were at least 4 helos in the air!)  More neighbors arrived who’d been running errands, and they’d had to run the gauntlet to get into our subdivision because Blanco Rd.–normally so busy it’s been undergoing a major widening project–was closed preventing travel beyond Huebner except for residents.  They had more info–BIG fire, natural gas line cut, flames at least three stories 60 feet high. Fun times. Zero injuries, thankfully, but some damaged cars and at least one absolutely wasted piece of expensive construction equipment.

Before leaving, Sara and I took a walk around the neighborhood, in part so I could see if I could prop our powered entry gate open without breaking it. By the time we got to the gate, the battery backup power supply for it had kicked on so folks were fleeing our neighborhood–either to see if they could see anything (couldn’t; entire roadway blocked directly to our left), run errands in air conditioned stores, or flee to air conditioned friends/family. I chose the latter and headed to my folks. Still no word on if the power’s back on. I’m waiting for Justin to complete his bike commute home and report on the condition of the intersection as well as the status of our power.

The trench they’d been working so dutifully on is now flooded with water and one charred trencher vehicle. Someone’s going to have an earful over this because it put lives at risk (construction crews, shoppers & employees at nearby stores and several neighborhoods, including ours less than 1/5 mile away.) Indeed, the news just posted an article headlined, “Investigation launched after crew ruptures gas line.” It took THIRTY San Antonio Fire Department units to contain and manage the resulting chaos. THIRTY. And judging from their Twitter feed, it hasn’t exactly been a slow day for them–jaws of life (Hurst tool) usage, multiple other structure fires, etc.

Just another day in the neighborhood…

Addendum from 9:38 PM:
Blanco Road at Huebner and perhaps other intersections outside 1604 remained closed until 6 PM this evening. On my trip back home around 8:30 PM, I saw at least a dozen different City Public Service (CPS) vehicles on-site, still working on the aftermath of the gas main cut and resulting fire. The intersection and next several hundred yards are much darker than usual due to all the light poles and perhaps some of the overhead power lines getting burned. At least one local news station has their satellite truck parked in preparation for a 10PM news live shot.

And the most important thing from a practical personal standpoint is we have power again — just in time because our weather is anything but “sleep with the windows open” weather at this point.