Category : Explosions and Fires

After GM Volt Fire, NHTSA Warns About Lithium Battery Fire Risk

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is re-examining the safety of lithium-ion batteries that are used in electric vehicles, after a fire involving a GM Volt.  A number of automakers manufacture these plug-in electric vehicles.

Read entire article

Los Angeles Alternative Fuel Plant Explosion Under Investigation

An alternative fuel plant explosion in Los Angeles is under investigation, California and Los Angeles investigators are probing the causes of the explosion which left two workers critically injured.

Read entire article

NTSB Releases Documents on San Bruno Gas Pipeline Explosion

The National Transportation Safety Board has released more than 4,000 pages of documents related to the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people last year.  The documents confirm to Los Angeles pipeline explosion attorneys the severe errors that were made and the pipeline flaws that ultimately contributed to the explosion.

Read entire article

US DOT Establishes Pipeline Safety Awareness Website

In response to concerns from citizens, safety groups and San Francisco pipeline explosion lawyers, the US Department of Transportation has established a new website dedicated to increasing awareness about gas pipeline safety.  The need for such websites and other resources to increase awareness about pipeline safety has become especially pronounced, since the massive pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California last year that killed eight people.

Read entire article

California’s Dangerous Pipelines Cause Worry

It appears that problems of pipeline integrity are not restricted to Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the company that operated the pipeline which exploded in September last year in San Bruno, killing eight people.  Two more major California utility companies have informed state regulators that they have no way of proving that they have conducted many critical safety tests on hundreds of miles of gas pipelines.

Read entire article

DOT Presents New Gas Pipeline Safety Proposals

The massive pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California that killed eight people seems to have been the trigger for a new pipeline safety plan that has been proposed by the Department of Transportation.  This week, Transportation Sec. De La Hoya unveiled a new plan for gas pipeline safety that will include an industry-wide review of oil and gas pipelines to identify the areas that need critical repairs.

Read entire article

Senate Considers Pipeline Safety Standards after California Explosion

A Senate Commerce Committee hearing regarding the San Bruno gas pipeline in California earlier this month discussed ways to prevent disasters like this, including suggestions to create buffer zones between pipelines and residential neighborhoods.  The explosion of a gas pipeline in a San Bruno neighborhood killed a total of eight people, and damaged several houses.

Read entire article

Investigators Probe Sewer Link in San Bruno Gas Pipeline Explosion

Investigators including the National Transportation Safety Board are specifically looking at whether repair work on a sewer pipeline close to a gas transmission line was responsible for a deadly explosion that shook a San Bruno neighborhood last week.  According to the Los Angeles Times, the sewer that was repaired back in 2008, had been repaired in an unsafe fashion that possibly caused damage to pipelines in the area.

Read entire article

San Bruno Explosion Reveals Inadequacies in PG&E Emergency Response Systems

It took PG&E emergency response crews at least one hour and 46 minutes to shut off the valve of the gas pipeline traced to a massive explosion that ripped through San Bruno last week.  The explosion killed four people and injured several others.  It also caused massive property damage.  In the wake of the explosion, California injury lawyers are finding out that PG&E emergency response systems at one of the state’s largest utility companies, belongs in the Stone Age.

Read entire article

San Bruno Gas Pipeline Explosion Death Toll Now Four

The death toll from the devastating gas pipeline explosion that ripped through a San Bruno neighborhood over the weekend, has now been revised to four from the earlier seven.  Meanwhile, residents of the neighborhood are now being allowed to return to their homes, many of which have been severely damaged.  There has been much disbelief at the kind of devastation that these residents have found, after they returned to their homes or, in many cases, what was left of them.

Read entire article