smoke and fire. you could hear it. >> flames shooting from san francisco street like a fiery geyser. >> heard a rushing noise like tornado, must have been the gas line leak. >> people forced to run for their lives. flames jumped from building to building. >> couldn't believe were seconds way from this. >> i'm dan ashley. >> i'm ama daetz. explosion sparked when construction crew hit a gas line just after 1:00. >> doing work in front of hong kong lounge ii, in jordan park neighborhood. >> rupture sparked off a big fire that burned more than tw hours. firefight rz went into defensive mode, five buildings damaged. no one was hurt. >> live team coverage. >> kate larson spoke to people who ran from the flames.

joins us live from the scene. >> reporter: this was geary boulevard at 1:00 in the afternoon. main thorough fr with tons of people at work and at home. pg&e crews have taken over the intersection, that's where the trenches were dug out and explosion came from underground, burning building on the corner. it's destroyed, top floor completely burnt out. this is what corner of geary boulevard and parker avenue looked like at 1:30 after construction crew hit a gas line. sky7 was overhead after the fireball exploded outside the hong kong lounge ii. >> hear it spraying video momenf

the flames and people running from the restaurant and construction site. >> saw the workers running past me. >> reporter: what workers? >> construction crew. >> reporter: how long had they been there, what were they doing? >> started a couple days ago, digging trenches in the street. >> workers working to install fiber optic equipment underground. >> reporter: all eight construction workers survived the explosion. more than 100 firefighters doused the flames with water, burned for more than two hours while pg&e worked to shut off gas to the area. >> it's complicated, lot of piping under the streets. doing their best. >> reporter: pg&e crews were inspecting after fire was knocked down. mayor london breed showed up, praised work ofir

o as thanks to quick response from the san francisco fire and police departments. i'm grateful for their service. >> reporter: pg&e crews will be here for the long haul. this intersection will be closed overnight. made arrangements for 38 bus line, popular route, to be detoured. information on abc7news.com, live in jordan park, kate larsen, abc7 news. >> some neighbors still can't return home. >> amanda del castillo spoke with evacuates, liveeeee >> reporter: few neighbors have returned along parker avenue, neighbors directly impacted, homes damaged in the fire and explosion, that will remain

displaced. many watched the fire fountain erupt over social media, watching from distance. others steps away. how close are you to where it happened? >> houses away. >> reporter: lives a few doors down, like many forced to evacuate after witnessing the >> i was by the park and heard something, when i looked, huge fire shooting into the sky. >> reporter: fire officials went door-to-door to evacuate neighbors. rough estimate, 100 displaced. fire is hoping will be lower once landlords account for tenants. >> telling people to spend overnight elsewhere. >> reporter: returned home to collect important items. >> taking stuff and going instead of waiting. >> reporter: mandatory evacuation was thodamaged.

>> somebody made a big mistake, so scary. >> reporter: says he was outside the chinese restaurant ten minutes before the explosion. captured this video showing the flames raging. >> smoke and fire, you could hear ssss, this is got to be gas pipe. >> reporter: still in disbelief. >> didn't think would ever happen here. but you never know. >> reporter: from pg&e, seven overnight gas service representatives on-site to relight pilot lights as power returns. additional 30 will be on-site tomorrow morning beginning 7:00 a.m. abc7 news. >> after the flames broke out, panic and chaos. >> spoke to one man inside hong kong lounge s erupted.

he describes moment byrd ahing e tornado, must have been the gas line leak. and that lasted about 15 seconds. we were all just looking at each other, didn't know what to do, didn't react. then we -- then immediately flames against the windows. and we all ran to the back of the restaurant. management was able to basically get us all out the back through the kitchen. we escaped out the kitchen after a minute and went out -- went out to the -- went out on the street. >> after the flames broke out, panic and chaos as you can imagine. listen to what dispatchers dealt irst minutes. >> going the main, knocked down all the -- >> building, building!

this side. >> copy that. fire! corner. top floor. >> can we get anything on that front building on the back end? keep it going to skier exterior? >> all the lines in place, watching the building on the delta side. >> after the gas explosion and fire, witnesses grabbed cell phones and documented the chaos. when you post on social media, use #abc7now and might see the pictures >> spent hours telling the story. >> found a lot of information o that triggered the explosion digging on fiber optic project. >> metro verizon had the permit, third party doing the out of coral gables, florida,

eight to ten workers, they cut into the gas main. natural gas didn't immediately catch fire so crew could run away, no one was hurt. cal osha said three recent inspections with them, they were demolishing power lines with another contractors when one of the workers suffered electric shock cutting into riser that housed a line. when someone is going to dig, have to call so pg&e can mark where the gas lines are. said they did call and lines were marked but pg&e has faced problems with 811 system. commissioner has questions. >> was there inaccuracy in the marking? what happened to the system?

this is also why the investigation that puc launched in 2018 was so important into this very program. >> puc found that pg&e had a broken state law not responding quickly enough to excavators' requests. and undercounted thousands of late tickets each year 2012 to 2015. bigger question, why did it take more than two hours to turn off the gas? apparently couldn't find a valve, digging by hand in the street, finally crimping it closed. i-team, abc7. >> we understand that company is cooperating with investigators. fiber installation has

halted. >> mastec issued statement. no injuries and fatalities reported, appreciate the interest many have expressed but must not publicly comment until investigation has concluded. >> you can receive text messages about emergencies, text alertsf to 888777. once you do that, you receive alerts about emergencies and other events that impact life in san francisco. don't have to live in san francisco to sign up for those alerts. >> we used abc7 news app to send out push alert. download to be first to know when news breaks. customize to your neighborhood. tanker truck fire snarls traffic in the south bay. update on lane closures.

oakland unified looks to slash funding. first look at plan and what it means for teachers ready to strike. i'm meteorologist sandhya patel, tracking winter chill for morning commute, and rain later this week. weekend preview coming up. first "jimmy kimmel live." >> thanks, enjoy this, compliments of the chef. see what the love meter says. let's see, wow, my gosh. >> that's not true. >> when you look at th

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in the east bay with teachers strike looming over oakland unified schools, superintendent proposed multimillion dollar cuts to keep the district out of the hole. plan not going over well with some. jobina attended the meeting. >> reporter: one end of the building, librarians protesting funding cuts and around the corner, parents and teachers

also calling out funding cuts. >> despite all the transparence speak the district says on their website, still having meetings behind closed doors. >> reporter: superintendent proposing cuts. we saw the breakdown. five categories the money is coming from. what does it include? cuts to school counselor positions, teacher training, central office administration and restorive justice program. didn't go over well with students in the room. >> we shouldn't have to suffer because of your inability to manage money. >> we want to pay our staff competitively but can't maintain same number of employees and pay more when aren't new resources coming in. >> reporter: says against cuts and parts of the budget proposal

bringing them one step closer to the picket line. jobina foshson, abc7 news. rear tires of gasoline tanker caught fire. now out but forced to close lanes after the fire started before 8:00 this evening. >> weather, chilly night and rain headed this way. >> meteorologist sandhya patel has it all for us. >> beautiful sunset first. chance to enjoy a break from east bay hills camera. clouds around that added character to the sunset tonight. clouds are going to help to insulate us, not expecting it to get as cold as this morning. many upper 20s in wind-sheltered valleys. 90% of average in san francisco,

95% in san jose, 91% in santa rosa, better in oakland and moffet field. will be going up in next week. nothing on live doppler 7 but will be changing come friday. temperatures, right now, down into the 30s and 40s. so it is definitely chilly out there, no doubt about it. here's where the numbers are going. napa's temperature trend, minimums, 33 tomorrow morning, but as we increase the cloud cld cover, temperatures come up. upper 30s friday, saturday and sunday. break from the very cold conditions we've been experiencing. until then, tomorrow morning. oakland and san mateo. outlying areas, 29 degrees. beautiful view from kgo roof camera, wind not a factor.

chilly tomorrow morning, cool and dry, wet pattern comes up. low to upper 50s for thursday, light level one system, exclusive to abc7 news. time it out for you in case you have plans for friday. in the morning, clouds, 5:00 a.m. 10:30 start to see light to moderate rain moving in. possibility of high elevation snow in lake county. moderate pockets in south bay, continues through the evening. scattered showers later friday night. heading to mountains, seeing three to possibly four feet of snow by monday. accuweather seven-day forecast, chilly tomorrow morning, light level one for friday. few showers saturday, that's best day it get outside.

possibility of snow on mt. hamilton and mt. selena. we're on the right track. >> thanks sandhya. today's episode of "general hospital" runs overnight, preempted by the fire and explosion

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our agents get more eyes on your home so you sell for thousands more than the one next door. don't get stuck in the past. sell with a redfin agent. richmond police released this photo. two early morning escapees near elementary school. not that serious, officer able to corral the mare and foal, restless and escaped. headed down the road, officers stopped traffic and captured the horses. not before the foal nipped one of the officers. released to animal control. >> maybe had a meeting to attend. >> somewhere to be. sports. nail biter at oracle. very close. would it end, larry. >> with anger. >> just the way you like it. >> well, this was a little

bit -- not much of a surprise based on how things were going but kevin durant went off after the game with the media, after nine days of silence from the local

good evening. warriors won by 39 tonight over the spurs but story is really all about kevin durant. he had gone nine days without speaking to local media. spoke tonight after the game and he's angry. start with highlights. dancing, dancing. dancing machine. five-point game, dubs score ten points in a minute, steph curry for 3 of his 19.load management. turned into rout. dubs up 14 at break. avalanche in the third, at one point the warriors made 25 of 26 shots. lot of lay-ups. steph curry laying in, steve nkg takes three and turns to bench with ball still in the

air before it goes through the net, it's going in, don't have to watch. bench goes crazy. season high 42 assists. iguodala to durant with authority. then would dunk on us, the media. 141-102 the final. enjoying life, gold chalss. k.d. not as happy over rumors he'll leave for the knicks. >> come in every day and ask me about free agency, ask teammates and coaches, rile up fans about it. let us play basketball, grow up. don't trust none of y'all, try to take me down with words i say. when i don't say nothing it's a problem. i want to play ball, go to gym, go home. that's all. >> all right. nba trade deadline is tomorro former warrior returning to northern california, sacramento

kings acquired goi making a playoff push. cal team not won conference since february of last year. starting well against oregon. team high 17 then cal as usual crumble. look at dunk by kenny wooten. oregon ends half on 19-6 run and bears have lost 11 straight. baseball news, giants apparently one of the mystery teams interested in signing bryce harper. they were, now out in the open fo everybody. hit 34 bombs, drove in 100 runs for washington last season. giants apparently met with harper in vegas, was looking for ten-year, $300 million deal. aren't we all?

shocking ny gned up rat. we'll what he settles for. k.d. shshow me homecoming. baby sloth videos on youtube. amy, do you uh mind giving someone else a turn? oh yeah i made myself a little comfortable here. i got a pizza for amy! yes, that's me! xfinity lets you search netflix, prime video, and youtube with the sound of your voice. and i don't have my wallet, so. that's simple. easy. awesome. get started with xfinity internet and tv for $40 each

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