A week after a gas explosion shook a Rancho Cordova neighborhood and blew up a house, killing one man and critically injuring his daughter and granddaughter, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. finally released its rule book for handling gas leaks. Incredibly, the public still can't see it. The document has been released to the federal investigator probing the deadly explosion – and no one else.
Officials of the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates private utilities, told The Bee they could not release a copy of PG&E's plan until they received a formal request. But after The Bee made a formal request, the CPUC acknowledged it did not have the plan, only a copy of its audit of the plan.
None of this reassures nervous Rancho Cordova residents still angry that PG&E failed to evacuate their neighborhood. The utility says it did not receive reports of a gas leak until 9:15 a.m. the day before Christmas, 4½ hours before the blast. Others claim calls were made as early as 12:30 a.m., 13 hours before the explosion.
Only Karl Gunther, the investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board, has been willing to acknowledge the obvious. "Typically, if you smell gas, you evacuate the whole neighborhood," Gunther told residents who attended a public meeting three days after the blast. "Those homes should have been evacuated."
In a welcome contrast to PG&E's silence, Gunther also provided a frank explanation of what he has learned thus far. The source of the gas leak was a coupling in the gas delivery pipe running under the blast victims' front lawn, he said, the same area where PG&E crews found seepage 18 months ago.
It could take a year to complete the investigation. Residents shouldn't have to wait that long for some assurance that they are safe. To that end, PG&E has belatedly sent crews door to door offering to check for appliance leaks. Good. Now let the public see what's in that plan.
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