Gang Task Force's Building Rigged to Explode in Hemet [LA/San Jacinto CA]

NBC ^ | 12/31/2009

[Ladycalif]

Updated 2:43 PM PST, Thu, Dec 31, 2009

Gang task force members in Hemet are lucky to alive Thursday after they noticed their office was flooded with natural gas in an apparently deliberate attempt to cause a deadly explosion, police said.

"It was basically designed so that once somebody came in and moved around a little bit, it would have gone off," said Hemet police Lt. Duane Wisehart. "At the very least, it would have leveled the building and killed whoever was inside."

Wisehart told the Southwest Riverside News Network that there is no doubt the trap was meant for members of the Hemet/San Jacinto Valley Gang Task Force.

Officers arriving for work were saved by their instincts."They were able to recognize right away that something was wrong," Wisehart told the North County Times.

[HollyB]

What do you mean?

[CaliGirl-R]

I live here in Hemet. Here is local paper’s story. Gas line was intentionally tampered with.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/publicsafety/stories/PE_News_Local_S_gas01.386ad19.html

Been here 21 years and I love my little city.

[ansel12]

Gas pip fitters don’t like being called plumbers. REALLY don’t like it. Fighting words.

I don't know what a gas pipe fitter is, but as a California plumber, I know that a plumber was called to handle the situation and will handle what ever gas repairs have to be done to that building.

[tickmeister]

One reason I heat with wood. I have yet to hear of a woodpile leaking into a house and exploding.

[glock rocks]

But natural gas does not puddle, it wants to dissipate, you keep talking about it as though it is propane, natural gas will seek an escape, propane wants to stay in place if it can.

Molecular weight of methane around 16, air around 29, propane around 44. For the most part true.

I worked as a fireman for the emergency crew of a natural gas company, and for the most part the leaking methane would sit and haunt if there wasn't a wind, or if it was somewhat confined.

Trenches and bell holes took out their share of engineers and welders. A dangerous mix of air and gas stayed in place if it was being replenished by the leak... I saw yard leaks take down houses, but have also watched welders cap leaks in live lines without mishap. I think 6-15% was the threshold. With a blowing leak, the % was higher than the combustion mix.

I got to watch from the side of the trenches with the nozzle of a huge CO₂ extinguisher in one hand, and the rescue line strung down in the trench around the welder's waist in the other. The bigger worry was him passing out from lack of O₂.

[cva66snipe]

Assume the worse when dealing with such. Don't look so much at probabilities as much as possibilities in fire safety. Sometimes you'll smell the NG before it hits explosive levels in a structure sometimes you won't. When you do you still can not judge how much the concentration is inside. But It can also still be at a dangerous accumulation level below you even in your own home and you not smell it. The people in Knoxville had just smelled a trace of NG a few days earlier.

Personally after smelling it I would react prevention and response wise on a worse case scenario basis. It will dissipate normally under ideal conditions. So will Carbon Monoxide too if allowed. Wood smoke also wants to rise and dissipate under Normal Conditions. Watch it as a front moves through though how it hangs close to the ground.

Normal Conditions are usually not what kill you though. It's just like when a low pressure system comes through you have to take extra precautions with using gas powered generators and vehicles etc around structures.

BTW I was also a fire fighter at one point. That training saved my life one night in a way not many would even think about. I had a kerosene heater going in my storage shed. It wasn't insulated and I left the door well cracked. The door likely by wind closed. I had been sitting down and felt a little light headed. I looked over at the wick and it was going dim. I dove for the door at that point. I knew it meant lack of oxygen by how the wick was acting. That was because I used to test for explosives and survival O2 levels with what was called a mining flame saftey lamp. Not something I had expected to happen but it did.

[CaliGirl-R]

We have a big case going on out here. A 17 yo gang member shot, chopped up and burned in a pit in his backyard, another 17 yo. He is on the run with his girlfriend, whose dad happens to be a Mongrol. Her parents were recently arrested on weapons charges. It’s a real crazy case.

Then a couple of weeks ago, one of our officers got shot at(pierced his driver’s side door) by a gang memeber and they did a big gang sweep that day. I listened to the whole incident on my scanner.

[ansel12]

Being the guy that people call when they have gas problems, and dangerous gas situations, I manage to get by. If you call the gas company first, then they lock the meter and make you call me before they will return your service.

[ansel12]

Trenches and bell holes took out their share of engineers and welders. A dangerous mix of air and gas stayed in place if it was being replenished by the leak...

I can see that, a trench can be an issue, as can certain situations under a house and such, I have run into a couple of situations where the conditions were just wrong when I was looking for a leak (while the gas was still on), but I could always stop the gas at it's source for my work.

[ExSoldier]

Somebody's been watching too many episodes of NCIS: LA and believing it.

[glock rocks]

You’re right on the mark. Stay safe.

Happy New Year, ansel12.

[ansel12]

Personally after smelling it I would react prevention and response wise on a worse case scenario basis.

You understand that, that means calling the plumbing contractor, which is me, right?

[cva66snipe]

BIOYA. :>}

[glock rocks]

I could always stop the gas at it's source for my work.

We were the guys that cut holes in the street with jackhammers and backhoes, and twisted the gate valve off when the leak wasn't necessarily inside the building... and leaking gas follows the pipes underground back to homes and such... especially where you have houses with basements, as here where I live. A woman and service man died in a new house explosion caused by a leak in a yard line apparently from yard construction this year here.

My truck had snorkles on the front bumper to sniff for leaks outside. On the high pressure lines, you could look for dust being blown 200 feet into the air. On the IHP and LP lines, the computer will catch them, then they call in the emergency crew to find it and fix it.

[ansel12]

What is that in adult language?

[Cold Heart]

I had training for LNG ships. One of the things we learned was the slow flame speed of natural gas, a man could out run it they claimed. We all took up jogging on our lunch breaks :)

[LibertyRocks]

Really glad no-one was hurt, and that gas companies put that rotten-egg smell in the gas lines!

[glock rocks]

Outrun a BLEVE on an LNG ship. Look mom, I can fly!

[ansel12]

I figured that, I have been in the streets with jackhammers and backhoes, but for different reasons.

The gas companies have their areas of responsibility but for this police station it would all be on the plumbing contractor, not the gas company, as you know they meet at the meter.

By the way, I understand that gas under pressure will follow a closed path, but open it to the atmosphere and it goes up.

[cva66snipe]

Bragging Is Only Your Answers. Fer shame fer shame what you were thinking. I'm cautious and it has paid off. It's just like a poster just posted about NG anything can happen. ANYTHING! BTW cutting even the Main Breaker off on a power panel does not mean the power is dead inside a home or structure either. It likely is but it may not be. Cutting the gas main to a home off means the flow may or may not have stopped as well. I err on side of caution.