Explosion in SF - right outside my building!

[bikerz]

Wow - that was something - today at just past 4 pm there was a very loud explosion which made the building shake and windows rattle.

Apparently a transformer (or something) blew under the intersection of California Street and Drumm street, right in front of my building. Two manhole covers blew right off, one of them even broke - the force must have been amazing to fracture cast iron like that.

It's amazing and lucky that no one was hurt - the manholes are right near the cable car tracks, and there are plenty of tourists around.

Fire trucks came within about 3 minutes, which was good to see.

I was too busy backing up all my work to think of taking any pictures right away, but here are a couple of bad shots I took just a few minutes ago with my cell phone.

[maillotpois]

Wow!

That happened several years ago right outside the Crocker Galleria on (I think) Post/Kearney.

Glad you're ok!

[Savra]

Ah, strangely your pictures make me miss my old home town. I miss SF.

[snapdragen]

Wow, I'm glad no one got hurt. Didn't a woman get burned a while back when a similar thing happened?

[bikerz]

It really is incredible that no one was hurt - the area is crawling with tourists, and it was right after 4, so plenty of people were leaving work.

Coincidentally, at lunch we had all just been talking about how poorly maintained our infrastructure is, and how vulnerable that makes us to natural disasters and accidents, as well as to terrorist attacks. And then POW!

There are a couple of news pieces now, and this one has photos taken by someone on the 5th floor of my building.

Helicopters are flying all around, now that there's nothing to see!

And yeah, MP and Snap - there was a similar event a few years ago up near Kearney.