200 Evacuated After Pipeline Bursts
About 200 people were evacuated from their apartments along Pacific Coast Highway in southeast Long Beach on Friday afternoon after an underground pipeline burst, sending a highly flammable, unrefined petroleum product onto the highway.
The highway was closed through the rush hour, creating a large traffic jam, as fire officials vacuumed the petroleum into trucks.
Residents of the 56-unit Pathway Apartments at 5983 Pacific Coast Highway were relocated to a recreation room within their complex as a precaution against an explosion, while fire officials tried to identify which of the “dozens” of pipelines in the area had ruptured, said Battalion Chief Jim Edwards of the Long Beach Fire Department.
Edwards said Friday night that the companies that operate the pipelines had shut them all down, but that petroleum was still oozing from the one that burst.
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