WESTMINSTER : Senior Apartments Damaged by Blast

An explosive being used to widen a water well on Monday blew out several windows of a senior citizen apartment complex 30 yards away, leaving many elderly residents shaken but uninjured.

“This sounded like a big kaboom!” said Gladys Williams, 74, who was reading a newspaper in her home at the Westminster Senior Apartments, near the 13800 block of Hoover Street, when the blast occurred at 10:25 a.m.

Williams said it was strong enough to rattle her room. In fact, many elderly residents said they believed the blast and subsequent shaking was caused by an earthquake.

The explosion erupted as workers for a private contractor lowered an explosive charge below ground and detonated it, said Westminster Fire Capt. Craig Campbell.

General Pump Co. of San Dimas was under contract by the city to work on a city-owned well on a 50-by-100-foot lot next to the seniors’ apartment buildings, he said.

“It was a pretty significant explosion,” Campbell said. “The charge was supposed to sound no louder than a firecracker. It was quite a bit louder and blew out windows of the Westminster Senior Apartments on the first and third floors.”

A spokesman for General Pump Co. said they hired Tiger Wire Line Co. of Signal Hill as a subcontractor to perforate small holes in a 14-inch water pipe using light explosive charges.

The holes allow workers to pump concrete around the pipe’s outer lining to strengthen it and prevent cracks that can allow sewage to contaminate the city’s water supply.

“The process is called ‘providing a sanitary seal,’ ” the spokesman said. “But the problem was that the well was dry. Usually, when these explode they are under water or some fluid and they sound like a small firecracker going off. But because the pipe was dry, it was like an echo chamber in there.”

One woman was taken to a hospital after she complained of dizziness and numbness, a Westminster fire official said. No one else was injured.

The incident is under investigation, Campbell said.