Housing
How a Simple Gas Leak Could Destroy Two Entire Buildings
A conversation with one of the fire chiefs who responded to the last major U.S. gas explosion.
The aftermath of a natural gas disaster can be unbelievably grim—sky-high sheets of flame, entire structures gone in seconds. The world got to see the destructive signature of a gas blast Wednesday in East Harlem, when a pair of five-story buildings exploded and crumbled into a fire-licked pile. At the most recent count, seven people died in the incident and at least 60 were injured.
Ron Lavezzo, fire-division chief for the Bay Area city of Millbrae, is a man familiar with gas-scented mayhem. He was among the first on the scene at the San Bruno pipeline explosion of 2010, a conflagration so fierce the media at first reported it as a plane crash that had set the "whole neighborhood on fire."