San Gabriel Valley

One Hospitalized Due to to Gas Leak and Fire in San Gabriel

Residents in a San Gabriel Valley neighborhood were without power after a ruptured gas line caused a fire.

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One person was hospitalized Tuesday after a ruptured gas line caused a fire that sent flames through a hole in a San Gabriel street.

The fire happened on the corner of East Saxon and Denton avenues.

One person was taken to the hospital and is recovering from burn injuries.

Art Soriano lives just feet from from where the gas line erupted. Soriano saw the flames shooting up from the ground nearly touching the power lines.

He immediately called 911.

"It was huge and you could feel the heat, and I took my water hose and tired to water," Soriano said.

NBC4's News Chopper captured images of the intense flames from the hole that was about six to eight feet wide.

Multiple crews responded including the San Gabriel Fire Department.

Their chief says it was an area the Golden State Water Company was working on.

"It appears it was an excavation operation taking place and at some point either through a shovel or piece of machinery the gas line was ruptured," said Chief Steve Wallace. "This is a very common incident for us, gas line can be under 60 to 70 pounds of pressure so you have a high pressure gas escaping from the street and once it ignites it spits the flames, we were estimating 25 to 30 feet."

Wallace says one of the contractors hired by the Golden State Water Company suffered minor burns from the fire and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

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