Gas Pipeline Blast Injures 6 in Echo Park

A subterranean gas pipeline undergoing a pressure test exploded along 100 yards of Glendale Boulevard in the Echo Park area Friday, injuring at least six people and damaging several structures on the busy thoroughfare.

The test did not involve natural gas--the line was being tested with relatively inert nitrogen--so there was no fire. But the blast, which was heard over a wide area, hurled large chunks of asphalt, concrete and compacted earth into the air, shattering windows in a studio and ripping tiles from a restaurant roof.

“It sounded like an earthquake,” said Janie Peters, an Echo Park resident who was standing a few yards away when the pipe burst.

Fire officials said none of the six known victims was believed to have been seriously injured. One man--a 38-year-old gas company employee--was taken to Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital for observation. The other victims were treated at the scene and released.

The Southern California Gas Co. said the explosion occurred at 2:07 p.m. at a point where a new six-inch line had recently been attached to an existing six-inch line. Both lines, buried about three feet deep, normally will carry natural gas at a pressure of 60 to 228 pounds per square inch.

To test the connection, nitrogen was pumped into the lines at a pressure of 400 pounds per square inch, said Mike Mizrahi, a gas company spokesman. The gas was pumped in from an existing connection, and no excavation was required.

“It was a routine test,” Mizrahi said.

For about two hours, all went well.

“Then something happened,” Mizrahi said. “We don’t know why.”

The blast, which ripped a ragged trench running 300 feet along the east side of Glendale Boulevard between Montana Street and Scott Avenue, left the boulevard a shambles.

Large chunks of earth and pavement--one about eight feet long and four feet wide--littered the roadway. An overhead traffic light, torn loose by the blast, lay where it had crashed onto the pavement. Tiles from the roof of a KFC fast-food restaurant were scattered on the sidewalk. Glass from the shattered window of a drafting studio crunched underfoot.

Amazingly, there were no pedestrians in the crosswalk and the road was momentarily clear of vehicular traffic when the blast occurred. Although nearby structures and Logan Elementary School, about a block away, were evacuated as a precaution, reports of structural damage were limited to buildings on Glendale Boulevard.

But cleanup crews with skip-loaders had to be brought in to clean up the mess, and in the meantime, Glendale Boulevard was closed along a three-block stretch between Reservoir Street and Berkeley Avenue.

Friday’s normally heavy homebound commuter traffic was clogged worse than usual by the sellout crowds headed for a crucial, late-season baseball game at nearby Dodger Stadium, and the boulevard closure jammed streets throughout the area.

Scores of neighbors gathered in excited groups to discuss the blast, but 7-year-old Gregory Caceres, a student at the elementary school, was unimpressed.

“I didn’t even feel it,” he said.