Some Uneasily Return to Homes Near Pipeline Blast

Some of the 270 residents who were forced to flee their homes after a gasoline pipeline explosion killed two people began returning to the neighborhood Monday but were greeted by city signs warning: “Enter at your own risk.”

Many other residents were reluctant to return to the devastated site, where two weeks earlier a runaway train derailed, killing four people and demolishing a row of homes.

Investigators are focusing on the possibility that the train wreck damaged the pressurized pipeline, causing the explosion on Thursday.

About 30 of the 170 families evacuated were given permission to return home Monday, police Officer John Montecino said. But by late Monday, only 13 of the families had returned.

“I have a handicapped child. How can we live in a home where we can’t guarantee his safety?” said Ed Cisneros, 46.

Also Monday, city officials and owners of the 14-inch pipeline negotiated conditions to reopen the line.

Chicago-based GATX Terminals Inc. says it wants to rebuild the pipeline under tougher standards, but in the same location.

“We basically explained that we want the line moved west of the railroad tracks” and away from the houses, City Atty. James Penman said after the two-hour meeting Monday.