Quake Jolts N. California; 1 Killed in Fall

A sharp earthquake centered on or near the San Andreas Fault struck Northern California early Tuesday, apparently causing a 19-year-old man to panic and plunge to his death from a fifth-story apartment window.

The 5.2-magnitude earthquake brought scores of calls to police and fire departments. Eleven aftershocks, including ones of 4.2 and 4.8 magnitude, followed Tuesday morning.

The epicenter was near the confluence of the San Andreas and Sargent faults, about halfway between San Jose and Santa Cruz near Lake Elsman, a small reservoir in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

In Los Gatos, southwest of San Jose, Matthew J. Bignall, 19, apparently was jolted awake by the earthquake, rushed to his bedroom window and crashed through its fiberglass screen to his death.

Bignall’s half brother, Ronald Burder, with whom he was living, speculated that Bignall was not thinking clearly when the quake struck. Probably half asleep, the young man simply “freaked out” and bolted for the window, perhaps forgetting that he was five stories up, Burder said.

The earthquake hit at 1:13 a.m. and rumbled for about 10 seconds. It was felt as far away as San Luis Obispo, about 230 miles south of San Francisco, in Tracy, 55 miles to the east, and in Sonoma County, 60 miles north, state emergency services officials said.

Cindy Kawano of the state Office of Emergency Services said there was “only minor damage in the affected county area,” including broken glass, chipped plaster and items that fell from shelves.

‘I’m Not Happy

In Santa Clara County, Sheriff’s Deputy Tom Abraham said numerous house and car alarms were tripped. Like many people living in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, Abraham was jolted from his sleep by the quake.

“I’m not happy about it at all. It’s all about feeling helpless. I myself lost a number of things off shelves, off the mantle,” Abraham said.

In Santa Cruz County, rocks tumbled onto roads and highways, but were cleared in time for the morning rush hour.

“It bounced me out of bed pretty good,” said Tom Mounts, emergency preparedness manager of the San Jose Office of Emergency Services. “I don’t know of anyone who slept through the first one.”

Mounts said the San Jose Fire Department responded to a few reports of leaking gas and water lines and one small fire at a San Jose hospital that might have been quake-related.

Bignall probably never experienced an earthquake of the magnitude of Tuesday’s jolt, at least not since he was a young child, Burger said. Burger said he had been in a deep sleep when the quake hit, causing the apartment building to sway violently.

‘I Was Scared to Death’

“I seriously thought the building was going to come down and we were going to die in the rubble like Mexico City,” Burger said. “I was scared to death. I know he was too.”

Bignall had lived in California until age 10, when he moved with his father to the Midwest. He returned during his time in the Navy, having been stationed for a time in San Diego. Upon his discharge from the Navy three months ago, he moved to Burger’s Los Gatos apartment.

“We can’t tell what went through his mind, possibly instant panic,” said Sgt. Tom Mitchell of the Los Gatos Police Department. “The screen from the window has an indentation very like a person’s head, so it looks like he dove through the window or fell through.”

Mitchell repeated the common wisdom that the safest place in an earthquake is in a doorway or under a table, and that people should “under no conditions run outside; seek shelter inside.”

Earlier Quake

The earthquake was about a mile from the epicenter of another earthquake estimated at 5.0 magnitude last June 27, suggesting that the area is becoming more active after a period of relative dormancy for most of this century.

“To have two of them in just over a year does point to higher activity,” said Dr. Andy Michael, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “That area in 1865 had a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. . . . When we start having magnitude 5 earthquakes, it gets us a little worried.”

The state Office of Emergency Services warned on Tuesday that there is an increased likelihood of more earthquakes in the coming days in the area. The stretch of the San Andreas near the epicenter can produce earthquakes of at least 6.5 magnitude, experts said.

Simulation Staged

The shaker came as 500 county, state and federal emergency response experts, along with scientists, military officials and Vice President Dan Quayle’s wife, Marilyn, gathered in a cavernous building in Sacramento for an exercise simulating a massive 7.5-magnitude quake along the Hayward Fault.

The U.S. Geological Survey believes that the Hayward is the fault most likely to result in a catastrophic quake in the northern part of the state during the next 30 years. Such a quake could result in 10,000 deaths and 40,000 injuries in Northern California.

Mrs. Quayle, whose pet project is disaster relief, said she did not feel the earthquake. But she added that when she turned on her television in her hotel room and saw a report of the earthquake, she thought, “Gee, it’s interesting, they already have the simulation on the news.”

Emergency Plan

Several others at the exercise also thought that the reports of the earthquake were part of the game. Mrs. Quayle spent the morning overseeing the exercise, moving from station to station and taking notes.

The simulation to continue today is based on a 1987 plan by the Federal Emergency Management Agency detailing the responses of various governmental agencies and private organizations.

“We have learned from cases such as Mexico City and Armenia that we probably better not wait for an earthquake to occur to see how the program works,” said Larry Zensinger, an FEMA official and chief exercise controller.