Death toll rises in gas line explosion near San Francisco airport

More fatalities were reported on Friday after a large fire from a gas line explosion leveled a neighborhood in San Bruno, a city near San Francisco International Airport.

The San Mateo County coroner's office said four people had been killed while local media quoted a San Francisco state senator as saying that at least six people have died.

According to fire officials, the fire was still only 75 percent contained on Friday morning and 38 single-family homes had been destroyed, less than an estimate of 53 on Thursday night, while there are also dozens of homes that sustained different degrees of damage.

Local media reported on Thursday night that the fire erupted at 6:24 local time (0224 GMT Friday) from a punctured petroleum Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) pipeline beside a high school when a backhoe digging too close clipped the line.

PG&E President Chris Johns said at a news conference on Friday morning that the utility's workers had not been able to reach the source of the explosion to find out why the pipe ruptured.

Acting Governor Abel Maldonado said another 30 fire engines would be deployed to the scene on Friday to supplement the 67 engines that responded on Thursday night.

At least 52 people suffered burn injuries and smoke inhalation, and three of them were in critical condition with third-degree burns, authorities said. More than 100 residents had been evacuated to two shopping centers near the neighborhood.

"It was like a detonation. We were in the kitchen. My wife saw flames coming to our house from four or five houses away," Guenter Gruschka told Xinhua Thursday midnight in Bay Hill Shopping Center, one of the evacuation places.

"We have not been able to go back there. We probably have lost our home," he said.

The evacuated residents were still kept away from their homes on Friday morning, and maybe some of them could return later on Friday, local authorities said.

The fire spread quite rapidly on Thursday night, after the initial explosion blew out a water line and firefighters were without water for the first 30 minutes. It also took PG&E almost two hours to locate and shut down the main gas line.

The National Transportation Safety Board said on Friday that it has sent a four-member team to San Bruno to investigate the blast.