PG&E control-room operator: 'We're screwed'
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
The repair project set in motion a chain of unforeseen problems and blunders leading up to the Sept. 9 explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes, records released by the National Transportation Safety Board show.
Electricity was cut off to equipment that controls gas pressure in the Peninsula pipelines, two backup power supplies failed to work and critical communications between PG&E's gas control center in San Francisco and the Milpitas control station were lost, the records show.
When the power was cut to the control station in Milpitas, a system set up by PG&E automatically increased pressure on all three Peninsula pipelines, including the one coursing through San Bruno, according to PG&E employees interviewed by the safety board. The federal agency is investigating what caused the explosion.
Through it all, operators in the San Francisco control room proved powerless to fix the problem.
"We're screwed, we're screwed," one operator said minutes before the 30-inch gas transmission line exploded.
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