Massive Fire Ball In San Bruno; One Dead, Six Critically Burned
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A massive fireball, possibly fueled by a broken natural gas line, erupted in the San Bruno foothills early Thursday evening, igniting at least 30 homes, killing at least one person and sending dozens of people to a local hospitals, six of those in critical condition, authorities said.
The four-alarm conflagration, soaring several hundred feet into the air in a tornadic column of fire, started at about 6:15 p.m. at Skyline Boulevard and San Bruno Avenue, according to the battalion chief's office.
The San Mateo County coroner confirmed that at least one person has died in the blaze.
"From the reports we have, we have at least one" fatality, coroner Robert Foucrault said.
Local residents said they felt an explosion followed by a fireball that soared hundreds of feet into the air.
"We heard what sounded like a plane, then all of a sudden an explosion," Carmann Robbins told KTVU. "It shook the window. It kind of startled me. We jumped up and then all you could see was flames. The flames were just spreading all through the houses. I don't think the people had time to get out. It (the fire) was jumping from one house to one house to another."
Jane Porcelli, 62, said she lives on a hill above where the fire is centered. She said she thought she heard a plane overhead with a struggling engine.
"And then you heard this bang. And everything shook except the floor, so we knew it wasn't an earthquake," Porcelli said.
"I feel helpless that I can't do anything. I just gotta sit by and watch."
At 6:14 p.m., Stephanie Mullen, Associated Press news editor for photos based in San Francisco, was attending children's soccer practice with her two children and husband at Cresmoor High School when she saw the blast.
"First, it was a low deep roar and everybody looked up, and we all knew something big was happening," she said. "Then there was a huge explosion with a ball of fire that went up behind the high school several thousand feet into the sky.
"Everybody grabbed their children and ran and put their children in their cars," Mullen said. "It was very clear something awful had happened."
Several minutes later, Mullen was near the fire scene, about a half-mile away in a middle-class neighborhood of 1960s vintage homes in hills overlooking San Francisco, the bay and the airport.
She said she could feel the heat of the fire on her face although she was three or four blocks away from the blaze. It appeared the fireball was big enough to have engulfed at least several homes.
"I could see families in the backyards of the homes next to where the fire was, bundling their children and trying to get them out of the backyards," she recounted.
She said people in the neighborhood were yelling "This is awful," "I live down there," and "My family is down there."
Judy and Frank Serrsseque were walking down a hill away from the flames with a makeshift wagon carrying important documents, medication and three cats.
Judy Serrsseque said she heard an explosion, saw that fire was headed toward their home and knew they had to leave. As they fled, they said they saw people burned and people struggling to get their things out of burning houses.
"We got everything together, and we just got out," Judy Serrsseque. "Mostly we're wondering if we have a house to go back to."
The fire was burning in the neighborhood where San Francisco Giants slugger Pablo Sandoval was renting a home. He was playing with the team in San Diego, but a source told KTVU that his mother had safely escaped the flames.
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Víctor Lei
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