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.

[glock rocks]

Yes it does. Natural gas weighs half of what air does, so it dissipates.

[porter_knorr]

It’s not really new. 40 years ago my parents owned a pie shop there. You are right, the demographics have drastically changed over the years.

I wonder if this has to do with the missing/murdered gang banger kids. (http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/swcounty/article_81bfda9f-684c-5ff4-a420-263963e32877.html)

[ansel12]

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

In the 1970s we had to replace all copper tubing that was taking gas to water heaters and such with different gas flexes.

In the 1990s I replaced an incredibly beautiful, all copper gas line in a La Jolla home that had been built by a contractor. Not only was it copper, but it was the thickest, inch and a quarter pipe with heavy fittings. I tried to find out the story of, why copper, and what I settled on was that the odor additive that was started in the 30s or 40s caused a reaction inside of copper, and that is why copper is no longer allowed, but was OK at one time.

[glock rocks]

My brother served on CVA63 Kitty Hawk in the Gulf of Tonkin during WWNam. Thank you for your service, I tip my hat and raise my glass. Have a Happy New Year.

[ansel12]

I'm cautious and it has paid off.

What I am trying to point out to you, is that caution means calling a plumbing contractor to handle the situation, the plumbing contractor is the expert and the repair authority for gas issues in your home or business. There is no one else to call, the gas company, the city, everyone, will tell you to call the expert, which is the plumbing contractor.

[cva66snipe]

You as well. Glad KH lasted as long as she did. It’s unusual for a first in class ship to outlive the ones in it’s class following it. I missed Nam by a few short years. I was right at under a year left in though in the Iranian Hostage Crisis happened.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

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

DAMN PLUMBERS!!!

Git Outta Dat Street!!!

Shit Under Pressure Goes EVERYWHERE!!!

(FlashBack!!!),,,

I Bet Ya’ll Are The Ones That Busted A Force-Main And A

12in. Water Line In The Same Hole(shudder),,,

Bwaaaaaaa,,,;0),,,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!...;0)

[Cvengr]

are lucky to alive Thursday

How about alive Friday?

[ansel12]

I’m still 40 minutes away from joining your world in the future.

It’s funny, I’m back here in 2009, yet I can still read your posts from 2010, it must be some kind of bending of time by Jim Robinson.

[TChris]

You are wrong by the way, this is natural gas, not propane, natural gas wants to get away, not puddle, and it stinks to high heaven.

None of them smell like anything naturally. A malodorant is added (Ethyl Mercaptan) to natural gas make it smell bad.

[cva66snipe]

Kinda funny because in my work the first person the plumber was going to talk to would be either my boss or me. LOL. In the mean time we would have handled the emergency as in life or structure threatening situation ourselves with the help of FD or utility if needed and the contractor would be called for repairing if it was above what we were equipped for.

We had plumber, electrician, and HVAC Tech in house. We would contract when we didn't have either the manpower or tools to do the job or if it involved equipment requiring by law certified licensed contractors. That usually meant mainly the boiler repairs if opened up and the elevator repairs in our case.

[ansel12]

Which hasn’t been relevant to the public for what? 60-73 years?

[ansel12]

We had plumber, electrician, and HVAC Tech in house. We would contract when we didn't have either the manpower or tools to do the job or if it involved equipment requiring by law certified licensed contractors.

Before I got into plumbing, I also did commercial building maintenance and apartment maintenance, for instance I had a maintenance electrician's license, and was maintenance supervisor for 1400 units, but I would never have called any of us "plumber, or electrician, or HVAC Tech ".

I always thought of us as maintenance men or handymen, and in most states that I have been in, they thought so as well.

I don't know why a journeyman would be drawing maintenance man's wages when he could be running his own truck (as a commissioned employee)and making so much more.

[cva66snipe]

I wasn't a maintenance mechanic in an apartment complex. I was such at several in patient medical care facilities. HVAC Tech or mechanic? 4 years Machinist Mate United States Navy AC&R qualified operating and working on a system of ten Centrifugal Chill Water Air Conditioning Plants ranging from 150-350 ton capacity in different loop configurations if needed, A completed course in a state VOC/TECH for Commercial Refrigeration, A completed Course in same for Industrial and Residential Wiring, U.S. Navy Damage Control Qualified and experienced onboard Fire Fighter as number one Nozzle-man on Number one hose trained for fighting class A,B,C, and D fires, Trained in testing DFM and feed water treatment for boilers, Boiler operator in civilian work, Maintenance Mechanic HVAC for a Worlds Fair, Experienced Diesel generator operator, Marine Diesel Operator, worked in buildings with 2000 amp 460 volt electrical switchboards, repaired electrical equipment for 100 HP and above electrical motors for same and somewhere along the way obtained a commercial drivers license & drove an 18 wheeler as well.

Where I worked state law required someone knowledgeable be there 24/7. It was facilities where the patients could not just walk out if things went bad wrong. On my shift due to my experience and training I had I worked it alone handling boiler operations plus HVAC plus electrical, plus plumbing issues, and handled any and all other emergencies from the building on fire to a patient or worker stuck in an elevator I had to get out. Then there was a retirement center added to that too which was a lower priority. I was also trained to haul explosives. No bragging just the facts. I've see a lot, done a lot, and learned from it.

Let me ask you something. You have a burnt up three phase six lead hook up motor six leads to it coming off two 45 amp control panels & the motor draws 90 amps. The building is getting hot because it's August. You have an equal HP motor, equal in total amperage and voltage, and RPM's that can mount up the same base but it's only a three wire hook up. Without help from anyone what would you do. This should be an easy one for you. You got to make it work. What do you have to do to get it to work? What is the main information you actually have to figure out first to do it? How do you obtain it and be sure you are right? You mess this up and a lot of money and precious time goes out the window.

Been there done that & I had it done and operational by the time the licensed contractor pulled up. My boss was still scratching his head wondering what to do about the burnt motor. Now stop jerking me around like I'm some know nothing flunky just because I'm not a licensed contractor. I'd handled more crisis in a month in my line of work than you likely in your career installing Al Gore Commodes.

Being Licensed dosen't mean Boo. I sw a licensed contractor wire in a chiller at a Worlds Fair and forgot to put tape on the kearneys for the chill water circ pump motor. Made a real nice half dollor sized hole in the peckerhead of the motor. It ran several months till it shorted. But hey what do I know I'm not licensed.

[ansel12]

So, which one of us do the police call as the expert on natural gas issues, when their own building needs to be repaired?

[South40]

Hemet is a relatively new city in California...

A city founded in 1887 and incorporated in 1910 is 'relatively new'?

[South40]

Been here 21 years and I love my little city.

I like Hemet too. I lived in Perris for a while and help build a good part of Moreno Valley so I know the area well.

[cva66snipe]

So, which one of us do the police call as the expert on natural gas issues, when their own building needs to be repaired?

Uh I think they would call the city maintenance department and THEY would make that determination not Officer Whoever :>}

[PapaBear3625]

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

Here in PA, gas fitting is done by licensed plumbers, who generally mostly do water-type plumbing.

[FreedomPoster]

That happened to two houses about a half mile away in our neighborhood when I was a kid. I think three people died. Two good-sized suburban houses were leveled by the explosion, and a third damaged so badly it had to be leveled, too.

I was at school, but my parents happened to be home, and they said insulation rained out of the sky like snow. And, again, we were about a half mile away.