Local News in Brief : Cut Pipeline Sparks Fire at Honor Rancho
Abulldozer severed a crude oil pipeline at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Castaic on Monday, igniting a fire that sent flames 100 feet into the air, burned two tractors and caused a small brush fire, authorities said.
There were no injuries in the fire, which started about 1:40 p.m. and burned for nearly five hours at the county detention camp, Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Larry Muell said.
The fire damaged a transformer and cut off power to the facility and its security system, prompting officials to confine all 4,700 inmates to their cells and barracks.
A bulldozer cut into the 14-inch pipeline, Muell said. About 50 firefighters, two water-dropping helicopters and five engines fought the fire, which blackened about four acres of brush and destroyed two tractors being used in construction, he said.
Oil flow to the pipe was cut off, and firefighters poured chemical foam onto the rupture, he said.
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