CONSUMERS : Getting Ready for the Big One With Gas Shut-Off Valves

After watching the fires and destruction from the San Francisco temblor on television last month, Bertha Kelly, a California resident for 62 years, decided to get serious about earthquake preparedness at her Bel-Air home.

She bought two hard hats, face masks, bottled water, dried fruit, granola bars, a camp stove, candles, extra flashlights and a crowbar.

Last week, she also had an automatic gas shut-off valve installed.

“I’m trying to prepare for the worst,” Kelly said. “And this gas shut-off valve sounded like a good thing to me. I even put notices about it in all my neighbors’ mailboxes. I think the whole neighborhood should get prepared. If we plan ahead, we won’t get caught unaware like some of the people in San Francisco did.”

Although there is much public and private debate about whether the automatic gas shut-off valves should be required for Southern California homes and businesses, increasing numbers of residents and business firms, especially in the wake of the San Francisco quake, are studying the devices, say valve manufacturers and the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

“We’ve had hundreds of phone calls,” said Cery Perle, president of Community Safety Products in Studio City, which nationally markets the Quake Master automatic gas shut-off valve manufactured in Anaheim. “It gives people an added sense of security. I call it ‘the smoke detector of the ‘90s.’ ”

The Los Angeles City Fire Department has been so inundated with calls about quake preparedness since the 7.1 San Francisco temblor that its officials have added four extra people to staff the phone lines.

By calling (213) 485-PREP, residents can get brochures on quake preparedness, learn the phone numbers of the three firms offering automatic gas shut-off valves, and sign up for courses in how to prepare for the Big One, although the classes are booked five months in advance.

For a three-quarter-inch pipe (the size for most residences, except those with pools, which usually have larger pipes), the automatic gas shut-off systems range in price from $229 plus tax and installation for the Koso International valve and the California Earthquake Valve to $395 plus $55 installation for the Quake Master from Perle’s company. Koso and CEV automatic shut-off valves have five-year warranties; Community Safety Products’ have a lifetime guarantee.

“We’ve been absolutely snowed since San Francisco,” said Bill Keller, of Koso International, the Santa Fe Springs manufacturer of another automatic gas shut-off valve. “People from San Diego to Seattle have been calling. We had one woman call from the marina in San Francisco to say thank you. She had one of our shut-off valves and her house didn’t burn.”

Southern California Gas Co. has had a heavy volume of calls about the devices, too, but it does not install them, nor does it believe they should be required for residences and businesses.

“We don’t think they should be mandated, because if they are, it’s going to take us a long time to turn the gas back on,” said gas company spokesman Dick Friend. “After the Whittier quake, 27,000 people shut off their gas and it took us a week to turn them all back on. The lines have to be tested and the pilots turned back on. Only about 50 of those were the automatic valves.

“We estimate that if the valves had been mandated, about 100,000 would have been tripped in the Whittier earthquake,” he added. “It would take about two to three weeks to turn those back on.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson has proposed an ordinance in City Council to require the devices, but the proposal is on hold until reports from the San Francisco and Santa Cruz fire departments are received this week.

“We’re waiting for some numbers,” said Greg Smith, Bernson’s chief deputy. “But we were up in San Francisco several weeks ago and a fire captain said there would not have been a fire in the marina if people had had the automatic gas shut-offs.”

Automatic shut-off devices, called “smart valves,” are required for every house or business in Japan’s quake zones, Smith noted. A computer in the box determines the magnitude of the quake and turns off the gas.

After a quake, licensed plumbers, contractors or certified installers for the automatic gas shut-off systems can come to your home and restore service for a fee. Southern California Gas Co. does not charge for that service.

As part of their quake preparedness, all Southern Californians should know where the gas, electric and water meters are in their residences, Friend said. They should keep a crescent wrench or gas shut-off tool near the gas meter, so they can turn off the gas quickly, in case there is a leak after a quake.

There is no automatic shut-off valve for water service, said Mindy Berman, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Electricity in a house may be turned off by flipping the main circuit breaker or unscrewing the master fuses.

“If you smell or hear gas leaking, do not turn any electrical switch off or on,” Berman said. “That can cause a spark to ignite the gas.

“The water can be shut off manually at the master valve, wherever the water service enters the structure,” she advised. “We encourage people to locate that and to test it periodically to make sure it can be turned by hand.”

But, if, during a quake, there is a leak in a water pipe between the street and the water meter, residents would need a meter or gate key to shut off the water.

“That’s when turning off the street valve would be necessitated,” said Berman.

Hardware stores and plumbing supply firms sell the meter keys for $14 to $20.

“A lot of people have been buying the meter keys,” said Victor Ontiveros, manager of the plumbing department at Virgil’s Hardware in Glendale. “It’s really something everybody should have. Nobody knows where the pipes are going to break.”

Some large Los Angeles businesses and office buildings already have had the devices installed, said Friend. The Music Center is testing a new device for buildings with heavy gas use. This new automatic shut-off valve detects the P wave, the one that rolls through the earth just before the S wave, which shakes the building. Among major businesses that have installed the Quake Master system, Perle said, are TRW, Pacific Bell, Chevron Oil, GTE, General Dynamics and Hughes Aircraft.

The Los Angeles City Fire Department is beginning to install the automatic gas shut-off valves in some fire stations and will eventually have them in all fire facilities in the city.

“We don’t endorse any of the systems, but it might be a good idea to have one,” said firefighter Fernando Villicana, a fire-safety specialist with the department. “Several of us have them in our own homes, because we think they’re an important safety factor. I’ve got one, and I think for $300 and some change, it may be a good investment.”