USA: Pipeline breaks, spills crude oil into Los Angeles neighborhood

Record ID: 345054

  • Title: USA: Pipeline breaks, spills crude oil into Los Angeles neighborhood
  • Date: 15th May 2014
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MAY 15, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MEN PUSHING POOLS OF OIL VARIOUS OF OIL SPILL SCENE WIDE OF LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, CAPTAIN JAMIE MOORE SPEAKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAPTAIN JAMIE MOORE, LOS ANGLES FIRE DEPARTMENT PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER SAYING: "We had reports of an oil spill and what first arriving fire companies found on scene was a 20 inch pipeline at a pumping transfer station owned by Plains West Coast Pipeline and they had a valve that had malfunctioned and they found 20 to 50 foot high oil spewing on the side of a gentlemen's club. There was a lagoon of oil in the area." EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT ON SCENE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAPTAIN JAMIE MOORE, LOS ANGLES FIRE DEPARTMENT PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER SAYING: "So our initial estimates were quite high, however, once we had vacuum trucks on scene, w were able to start vacuuming up the oil and so that lagoon starting residing and we could actually see how much oil we had and we could take a measurement of that oil." MEN CLEANING UP POOLS OF OIL
  • Embargoed: 30th May 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Business,Disasters,Industry,People
  • Reuters ID: LVAEO91BMV89QQDCXSAQ4Y8PY2GE
  • Story Text: Thousands of gallons of crude oil spilled over a half-mile area in Los Angeles on Thursday (May 15) due to a break in an above-ground Plains West Coast pipeline, the city fire department said.
    The spill was 10,000 gallons (37,854 liters), according to Jamie Moore, a public information officer with the Los Angeles Fire Department. The first estimate of the spill was 1 million gallons, which was revised down to 50,000 gallons (189,271 liters), or slightly more than 1,000 barrels.
    The cleanup was under way this morning, with crews vacuuming up most of the crude.
    Four people at a nearby business were evacuated with respiratory complaints.
    The pipeline was shut off remotely, and the incident shut down a section of the Atwater Village area of the city, a local NBC affiliate reported.
    "Oil is knee-high in some areas," the fire department said in a statement.
    The break in the 20-inch (50 cm) pipeline was at a pumping station in an industrial area near San Fernando Road in Atwater Village, the fire department said.
    Video footage showed oil spraying about 20 feet (6.1 meters) in the air from the leak, which happened at an oil-gathering station situated next to a strip club, The Gentlemen's Club, which was evacuated, according to media reports.
    The Plains West Coast pipeline is run by Plains Pipeline L.P., a unit of Plains All American. A company spokesman did not immediately return a call outside normal business hours.
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