Bank Closed After Possible Methane Gas Peril Is Found

Potentially explosive levels of methane gas in the walls of a Wells Fargo Bank branch--near the Fairfax District site of a 1985 methane blast that injured 21 people--prompted bank officials this week to close the building and begin plans to remove safe deposit boxes.

Kim Kellogg, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based bank, said Friday that the most recent tests from a private consultant hired by the bank found 5% concentrations of methane--enough to cause an explosion--in the walls and under the pavement in an adjacent parking lot.

Fire officials, however, maintained that no real hazard exists.

“We’re not on the scene and if there was something explosive we’d be there,” said Jim Wells, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman.

Katherine McDonald, an aide to Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, said fire officials told her that tests inside the building showed a 1% to 3% concentration of methane in one wall, levels that can cause an explosion.

“The decision to evacuate the building was made by Wells Fargo without any recommendation from the Fire Department,” she said.

Late Friday, however, the Fire Department officially backed the bank’s decision to close the building. It maintained, however, that no danger existed.

The bank branch, on Fairfax Avenue just south of Beverly Boulevard, was evacuated at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday after a strong smell of gas was detected in a wall behind an electrical plate. The branch has remained closed as technicians attempt to air it out.

The safe deposit boxes will be moved as a precaution, Kellogg said, adding that the bank branch is expected to remain closed at least a week.

“We just felt that was the prudent approach and the safest approach,” she said. “We just don’t want to take chances with our customers and their belongings.”

After the 1985 explosion in the basement of a Ross Dress for Less store, a 400-block swath of the Fairfax District, including the area where the bank is located, was officially designated an area of potential risk because it sits atop naturally occuring underground pockets of methane.

The store, which is only a few blocks from the bank branch, exploded. Nearly two dozen people were hospitalized.

In February, 1989, high concentrations of the methane gas prompted fire officials to close 50 Fairfax District businesses for several days.

Times staff writer Mathis Chazanov contributed to this story.