Six people are dead and five others are missing after an enormous natural gas explosion tore through a suburb south of San Francisco, destroying homes, sending flames roaring through the hills and injuring dozens.
Some residents near the devastated San Bruno neighbourhood were allowed to return to their homes on Saturday afternoon, nearly 48 hours after a ruptured gas line sent a fireball 300 metres into the air, consuming dozens of houses and leaving behind a huge crater.
"We have to start from zero again," said resident Nora Tobar. "When you start remembering it gets too sad. But the most important thing is that we're alive."
Still, other residents were less fortunate.
Officials said five people were still unaccounted for as they scoured the wreckage. At least 50 others were injured by the explosion and ensuring fires that erupted Thursday night, which firefighters in the community struggled into the next day to contain.
Seven people were critically injured.
The company that operates the 76-centimetre-wide gas line said it was investigating what caused it to rupture and ignite. Federal officials were also probing why the explosion occurred.
Some 2,840 major gas pipeline accidents have taken place in the United States over the past two decades, according to federal authorities there. At least one person was killed or injured in 1,000 of those accidents. More than 300 people died, while 1,372 were injured.
The San Mateo County Coroner's Office identified those killed in Thursday's blast as 44-year-old Jacquelin Greig, her 13-year-old daughter Janessa, and 20-year-old Jessica Morales. The other victims haven't yet been identified.
Ironically, Jacqueline Greig was an employee of the California Public Utilities Commission, where she worked to protect consumers from rising gas bills and unsafe pipeline expansions.
There have been reports that the smell of gas had been noticed by residents days before the blast occurred, but the utility has said there was no record of complaints.
San Bruno Fire Capt. Charlie Barringer was one of the first to respond to the explosion at just after 6 p.m. Thursday.
"I thought a 747 had landed on us," he told the Los Angeles Times. "It shook our station right to its foundation."
Within a minute of the alarm sounding, he said firefighters discovered a gas line had exploded, destroying not only homes but also the water mains that supplied nearby fire hydrants.
Although his crew arrived only a few minutes after the blast, they found that a large area was already ablaze and had no water to fight the fires.
"We were overwhelmed. We had multiple neighbourhoods on fire," Barringer said.
With files from The Associated Press
