LOS ANGELES, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A powerful natural gas explosion on Monday afternoon killed a gas company worker and 15 other people in the south of the U.S. state of California.
The tragedy happened in the city of Murrieta, 130 km south of Los Angeles downtown.
According to the local ABC7 news channel, authorities were first called to a home in Murrieta just before 11:00 a.m. (1800 GMT) on a report of a gas leak. About half an hour later, firefighters and engineers from SoCalGas, a primary company supplying natural gas to the region of Southern California arrived at the scene. When they were checking the gas line rupture, an explosion occurred at about 12:10 p.m. (1910 GMT).
"Today SoCalGas crews responded to reports of a damaged natural gas line & shortly after our crews arrived, there was an explosion," SoCalGas wrote on Twitter. "Sadly, one of our employees was fatally injured and others harmed. Our thoughts are with the families & first responders impacted."
SoCalGas said it appears that the incident took place as a contractor who had been working on the home failed to detect gas lines before digging.
Pictures posted online showed that the explosion was so powerful that flames shot up over 5 meters higher than the home's roof and heavy smoke poured into the sky. After firefighters put down the fire, the house was almost blown up into rubbles and most walls completely collapsed.
Residents living on the same street where the fatal incident occurred told local media that at first they thought an earthquake had hit, and then ran outside to see the burning home.
Three of the injured were firefighters and the other 12 people were civilians, fire department officials said.
