Coverage of Last Night's Gas Line Explosion in San Bruno

Did KCAL allege that last night's massive, firey explosion in San Bruno (just south of San Francisco) was caused by an asteroid? Sure looked like it here -- but this was actually a mistake (the perils of an automated news system, I assume).

Thanks to its regular 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. newsblock, KCAL had the most coverage of any local station in primetime. The cable news nets had only limited coverage, preferring to stick to repeats of their regular fare. That left the web, where folks who wanted the most complete coverage could at least watch live streaming from San Francisco's KGO, KPIX and KRON, among others.

SFist has a full time table of what happened here. So far six are confirmed dead and more than 50 homes destroyed from the blast, which PG&E said was caused by a ruptured gas line.

Retro Friday: The Fairfax District Methane Explosion

It's why we don't have a subway to the sea -- or even west of Western -- these days. In 1985, a methane gas explosion injured many shoppers and severely damaged the Ross Dress for Less store at Fairfax and 3rd (read about it here). Soon after, Rep. Henry Waxman spearheaded a successful effort to stop plans to extend the Metro subway west under Wilshire.

Here's news coverage from KCBS/Channel 2 in the wake of the incident; a young Ann Curry is among the reporters seen in this heavily edited clip.

By the way, Waxman finally reversed course, and his ban on the use of federal dollars for a subway was finally repealed at the end of last year. OK, so where's our subway to the sea now?