Propane Cloud Prompts Evacuation in Anaheim Hills

Four Anaheim Hills homes were evacuated for about four hours Monday as firefighters worked to contain a potentially explosive cloud of propane gas.

The gas, which leaked from a 3-by-10-foot cylinder, was discovered by workers grading an area shortly before 10 a.m., Anaheim spokesman Patrick Denny said. The workers had picked up the cylinder with a bulldozer and dropped it into a dumpster, then called fire officials when a visible vapor cloud gathered.

Anaheim fire officials, hazardous material squads and police cordoned off the area. A police helicopter equipped with a loudspeaker broadcast a warning to residents, and officers wearing gas masks escorted residents out of the area.

The exact number of people evacuated was not known, Denny said. But since all residential lots in the area are at least an acre in size, only four homes were threatened by the cloud. “We’ve got a large problem, but very few people,” Fire Department Battalion Chief Tom Van Diver said.

15 Gallons Leaked

Hazardous materials squad members examined the cylinder, which had leaked an estimated 15 gallons of propane. Van Diver said much of the gas had flowed downhill from the site, but enough of the cloud remained to force the evacuation.

Powerful fans were brought in to dissipate the heavier-than-air cloud of gas, then firefighters took a crowbar to open the cylinder and remove the last of the gases before declaring the area safe.

But Denny said the residue from the propane that seeped into the soils will probably “stink up the area for some time, maybe as long as a couple of months.”

Officials of Vangas Inc. were called in, and the cylinder eventually was carted off to the Vangas plant in Placentia. After checking the tank, Vangas district manager Randy Elder concluded that the cylinder probably had been in use recently, although the home where it was discovered appeared to be unoccupied.

Elder said that he was not sure whether a Vangas customer had lived there and that company records were being checked to determine its status. He said there might be only 10 customers “on that whole hillside” because natural gas has gradually replaced propane for heating.