to. >> we are meeting regularly with pg & e. we have meeting scheduled that are biweekly and we've been able to meet four times during this reporting period. typically pg & e notifies us the day before that they're unable to join us for various reasons. sometimes a holiday, conflict, kind of thing like that. sometimes it's not clear why they're not able to meet and i want to note that the report covers 53 specific city projects. eight of those are new since our novembe.since our november repoo projects have been preven redon. they're not covered in the report summary and as supervisor ronan mentioned, pg & e filed for bankruptcy and we filed our first complaint on these self-years agoseveralyears ago e period, we continued to have conversations with pg & e and we recent filed another complaint, january 29. it addresses a number of issues. we've asked for the federal regulatory commission to comply with the tariffs by offering the city the secondary and primary plus, wholesale distributions services that they provided and we have

& e bail-out working to deal with all of this pg & e stuff. i want to point out that chapter 11 is not bankruptcy. it's bankruptcy protection. it's protection from bankruptcy. and that -- what it means they're trying to avoid having to pay victims of the fires and having to avoid paying for things like clean energy costs, if it can and maybe the bankers that it just got a $6 billion capacity to do loans with. , the first ones that get their share of the money. it's important to understand that the so-called emergency hearing they called with five day's notice was not an emergency. pg & e has $20 billion positive in its bank account and so they have the capacity to pay for these things and pg & e would not have been able to file chapter 11 bankruptcy protection without the cpuc doing that and literally on midnight, 12:01 after the day the cpc passed this, that's when pg & e declare chapter 11. what we need to do and need lafco to push for is for the current credit tere creditors te chapter 11 deal so that it's lickkliquidates. >> thank you. >>

and not anyway associated with pg&e. as i mention we're working and safely as quickly as possible to resolve the situation. >> so pg&e was able to shut off the gas leak. about a half hur ago. when they did the flames disappeared immediately after the gas was shut off. we have good news to report now the bad news of course is that there are evacuees. who have been driven out of the unit. businesses that were damaged. the hong kong lounge was badly damaged perhaps destroyed. we will have more to report on that later on. as we get more detail. now that the fire is out. we are told that some businesses have offered to take some of the evacuees in. we're told mel's diner which is just down the road here is one of the businesses. that is welcoming evacuees to have have a cup of coffee and meal. and sit in the restaurant until they can decide where to go. essentially. that's the latest here at the fire scene. back to you. >> possibly st. mary's cathedral. that was a possible location. from where you are, were you feeling the he

and to take any other actions that they deem necessary, to make sure that we get fair service from pg & e. so with that summary, i'm happy to take any questions or if you wish to hear from the other departments? >> from the time you reached agreements to move forward on a number of the other projects, have any of them been finalized. >> so we have four projects actually get energized, ok? permanent power or temporary power? >> with permanent power. >> ok. >> so, those, the balboa pool has been energized, the randall museum has been energized, rest room at rec park facility was energized. >> that's good to know. i don't know that you'll be able to fully answer this question but i'm curious of your thoughts. >> i'll do my best. >> we are all wondering what does pg & e means for city projects. but have you encountered any situation where pg & e is using the bankruptcy as an excuse to delay and not to move forward on energizing any of the projects? >> so i would say that pg & e requested of the bankruptcy court and as i understand it, the bankruptcy court in the first week approved its re

what would you like to see happen in the expected o restructuri pg&e? >> i think the main thing in thd restructuringt the end of the day as it comes out of bankruptcy court, we want to make sure the rate payers are protected, we want to make sure the victims have the compensation they need to get their lives back in order and that we contractsth labor are preserved too. but i think what we have to loot carefully is the conclusion i came to before early on they're just too big to succeed. they're very cumbersome, bureaucratic organization, they don't -- one end doesn't know what the other end is doing. we've seen evidence of that over the years. restructuringan perhaps bre them up into a gas and electric division, that's been said a lot. >> unions have made it clear they don't want to see itnt bron up little pieces. what do you think of all this, mark tony, do they ne to be broken up? i think. >> i think the most important thing right now is that there needs to be new leadership at pg&e and it needs to happen really quickly. a federal court judge has the

t this second time in less than 20 years in a pg&e has declared bankruptcy. in a statement pg&e expects no disruption in services and it will keep helping wildfire afected communities recov rebuild. but the bankruptcy filing now puts on hold lawsuits filed by wildfire victims who could wait years before getting paid. stay lawmakers are w seeking ways to have more control over what happens next. joining me now to discuss all of this are kqed politics and government reporter marissa lagos and jerry hill, he chairs the se subcommittee on gas, electric and transportation safety, and mark tony, executive director at term, the utility , reform netwoelcome to you all. marissa, this bankruptcy filing leves a lot of people in legal limbo. what's going to happenilwith liy payments to wildfire victims? >> that's the $30 billion question right now. it's the amount of liability outstanding. that's what we'll watch here at kqed and others, is how much do these folks ge a sea at the table. we know that's not inherently the structure in bankruptcy creditors are first in line

we are looking at pg&e do some work here. we see some of those trucks and utility vehicles beginning to move some of the debris around. pg&e calling it a very compact situation, saying multiple gas lines ranging from two and 12 inches on the ground, that is what they were up against, and there are state laws requiring them not to dig in further. they have to hand take into asphalt right below the surface. i will let my colleagues delve more into that, but again this is the situation out here. obviously, there is no smoke anymore. flames are gone. that free-flowing flames were going for 2 hours, 15 minutes, so concerning situation throughout the hours. the people nearby and watching this and wondering if they can return home , please find a san francisco police officer and ask them to escort you to your home. frank and julie, i will send it back to you. you don't have a ballpark number at how may people displaced, but there were five buildings displaced. do you know if others building for mixed-use buildings, residential on to

for the exit fee pg&e charges.continue to keep an eye out for impacts there and report to you. that brings us to pg&e's bankruptcy filing and impact on clean power sf operations. you've probably seen all the coverage. it's been pretty extensive. pg&e filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on january 29th. we indicated to you at our last meeting that a possible impact to clean power sf, if pg&e filed for bankruptcy, would be a delay in revenue remittances from pg&e to us. so remember that when you're a clean power sf customer under state law pg&e handles the billing which means the customer receives a bill from pg&e, they pay them and pg&e passes the portion of the payment that belongs to us on to us. so pg&e did with bankruptcy interrupt the remittances, so we stopped receiving our share of the revenue from customers from pg&e when it filed for bankruptcy. however, as they had indicated and as we had worked with them prior to the bankruptcy filing, pg&e requested that the court authorize it to continue making its payments

pg&e says the power has been turned back on.y're still working to get gas service back on for 300 customers. >>> the company working at the site is called mastec. dan noyes found a lot of information on mastec and pg&e. >> mci metro verizon had the permit to work on the scene. the company, mastec, is a construction company based out of coral gables, florida. it was their crew of eight to ten workers, one operating that excavator that cut into the 12-inch gas main. video shows the natural gas didn't immediately catch fire. the crew had the chance to runaway. no one was hurt in this incident. cal osha says they've had three inspections from mastec. one from concord in 2015. mastec employees were demolishing some power lines with other contractors with one of them suffered an electric shock. when someone is going to dig, they have to call 811. so pg&e can mark where the gas lines are to prevent an accident like this. pg&e said today mastec did call and the lines were marked. but pg&e has faced problems with this 811 system. a forme

so one of the things that we have asked from pg&e and we have submitted an application in august andwe're waiting for them to get back in terms of reevaluation and analysis on the load for that area. and in particular if they could expedite the review of the system impact study itself. next is corona heights state street. and it was one of the items that was problematic. and during that time period of construction they had the constuks continue. when they did that they inadvertently cut power to the restroom at corona heights right nearby and, unfortunately, since then we haven't gotten a clear timeline when the power would be restored and we're urging pg&e to work to identify the next new section. >> when did the power go off? >> so we asked for power to be cut off when construction was happening in about early fall or so. and then that's when we noticed that it wasn't -- our staff noticed that the lights were not turning on. so we did further investigation and we realized that it was a connection to the randall museum and that cut off. so we're hoping that a little bit more is reso

projects are improved they touch the electric grid and we have to submit a new application to pg&e and they're re-reviewing what the appropriate electrical configuration is. in that context they're putting up these higher hurdles for us. we believe that -- and we have filed at the energy regulatory commission that we have a right to continue service at secondary under the federal power act and that's an open issue that is pending for action at the federal energy regulatory commission. >> okay, thank you. >> thank you, vice chair stefani. and thank you miss hail. i thank we have -- is that everything from rec and park? >> good morning, chair and committee members. i'm beverly ing with the san francisco recreational and parks department. thank you, super ronen, for bringing this legislation forth. since june we have had some progress on a few projects and i want to highlight a couple of them. margaret haywood playground that broke fall last year, it was an application for electrical service demo and transfer -- transformer removal. which pg&e we were appreciative of the efforts that mike

why haven't pg&e turned off the gas yet? >> i don't want to speculate. as i mentioned we're working as quickly as possible to get this resolved. thank you. i don't have information on that. >> reporter: all of that is under investigation. >> reporter: you mentioned there's three buildings involved. there's three buildings involved and now a fourth that's being damaged. >> there's a total of five buildings. the fire building itself at the corner of geary and parker plus four others at this point and so they're mixed commercial and residential. we anticipate some displacements and we have some reunification sites, mel's diner, 355 geary down the street and st. mary's cathedral will open up their doors if needed and will be needed most likely tonight for the displaced residents. thebuporter: chief, have y >>yndstdi i a wh it. we have cordoned off and set up a perimeter on a block on each side of where the incident is. all those buildings were gone through and searched, a combination of police and fire to make sure residents were alerted and out and evacuate

pg&e pledged a new training on emergency shutdown valves. nearly 40 years later, the clear question now is why is it still taking pg&e so long to shut off the gas and fire. a spokesperson told us that they have to dig through the street by hand to get to the gas line. they also want to be careful not to cut off power or gas to thousands of other people. >> they were trying to explain it the best they could. thank you. >>> some other major headlines this evening, a break in the case to find a serial killer who terrorized gay men in the castro. >>> plus, where the district says they could find millions of dollars to pay teachers more dem could go on strike later this month. so what is the district doing about it. . >>> oakland teachers demanding better pay and they could go on strike later this month. what is the district doing about it? the superintendent says she is looking for places to cut. melissa colorado live in oakland with the details. >> reporter: the threat of the strike is putting pressure on the district to come up with a better o

pg&e tells us their crews did that. they say they properly marked the lines last week but when it comes to the inspections, sior investigator reporter bigad shaban said pg&e does have a troubled history. >> the question remains, did pg&e put those markings in the wrong spot? or did the contractor somehow misread or ignore the markings while digging. that is still unclear. here is what we do know. pg&e has a record of falsifying reports related to the very inspections that are supposed to prevent these type of accidents. as our investigation first revealed several weeks ago, state regulators determined that the utility company was under staffed and failed to respond within the inquired two-day deadline to tens of thousands of inspection requests between 2012 and this year and in fact an audit shows pg&e filed as many as a quarter of a million false on-time reports over that five-year period. now if pg&e employees don't come out to mark the gas lines, construction crews may not know where the lines are located before they

normally pg & e electricity rates are set every year on january 1. before this occurs, they typically issue a decision in december in a proceeding called the energy resource recovery account. we call that era. that decision was delayed this year and as a result that has delayed pg & e's implementation of the electricity rates. the delay is affecting the implementation of pg & e's generation rates and exit fee, the power charge and difference adjustment that cca participating customers must pay pay. they issued a decision yesterday. so as a result, we're now anticipating that the new pg & e exit fees and generation rates will take effect on either apri. pg & e is expected to file rates with the california puc towards the end of march. they have 30 days from the day of the decision, indicating the specific effective date of the rates and we've heard april or may and that's what we're looking at. at that time, the sf puc will finalize clean power rates per the rate action taken on december 11 and approved by the board of supervisors following the rate h

what was happening with pg&e ? >> i believe the question she had was what was happening after we were alerted of the situation? first and foremost, we responded at the scene safely and as quickly as possible. once we got on the scene, we assessed it, and like i said before this is a complex situation. beneath us, there's a complex web of utilities. multiple gas lines range from two inches to 12 inches. g right in and isolating aps a valve or pinching off the gas line. you have to go slow, and that for several reasons. state law requires us, that we know there's a gas line within 24 inches of asphalt above -- or beneath the surface, that we have to hand in. you can imagine try to hand take in the asphalt. it takes time, so we needed to go slow, put together a plan first, then slowly, methodically hand dig to get to point where we can shut off valves or paint lines to shut off service. i also mentioned it's very cold right now. if we do this wrong and shut off gas to potentially hundreds, maybe thousands of more peop

pay pg&e for the service. pg&e provides the payment to us. they are holding the funds our customers are paying to us, making payments to us through pg&e. it is a pass-through function. in the face of bankruptcy there is a concern pg&e could end up having a delay in the remittance of those dollars from them to us. even though a customer paid for the service and intended us to be paid, since it goes through pg&e we could have a delay in receiving the funds from pg&e. that is a potential impact that we are keeping an eye on and taking steps to mitigate. as mayor breed has asked us to do we look at municipalization. that has come up in the context of bankruptcy to further expand on the question you are asking. what happens to the two programs? under that scenario the heche program would explain. that program would absorb the clean power sf program customers. instead of just providing supply to the customers we would provide fully integrated services to all those in san francisco that we only provide to a portion i

you come up with the wildfire plan from pg&e. who is enforcing it? who is watching to make sure that work is getting done, so short answer to you right now is i don't know at this point. but that is a very important question. so the puc has a recommendation for them to take these steps. what enforcement has there been? have they been watching? is there accountability on them actually installing these remote shutoff valves. those are all questions that we really need to follow up on but right now, the first most immediate thing is to get those flames out. >> we continue to watch just a recap for our audience who is joining us now, the reason we're on and not "world news tonight" is because we have a major breaking news story we've been following in san francisco for the past two hours and about 15 minutes now, that being this massive natural gas explosion in san francisco, a three-alarm fire, busy geary at parker, where there's ucs, there is that hong kong lounge building that's been damaged greatly. there's mel's diner. >> h&r block. it's a very busy

pg&e could shut off the gas line. here's what chief joanne hayes white had to say about that. >> what our objective was not only to keep everyone safe but to contain the fire. free-flowing, over two hours, so we put up water we used defensive tactics, to make sure that our firefighters were kept safe, and to protect the other structures. there were a total of five buildings involved. department of building inspection is on the scene to assess the structural integrity of all buildings involved. this is still an active incident but it is under control at this time. >> reporter: now let me show you some video specifically of what this looked like when they actually pinched off the line. it took two hours but when they pinched it off it was like you had just shutoff the flame on your stove, you had just turned the knob and suddenly the fire was gone. it was basically a funnel of flames going straight up into the air and suddenly it had stopped. what took so long to do this pacific gas & electric said they had to assess th

pg&e the construction crews hit and 12 inch line there. they say pg&e properly marked the area as requested on january 28. >> we have team coverage tonight with our henry lee talking to witnesses who heard the explosion and heard the fire. we begin with alyana gomez for the latest on the scene, and we just heard from the mayor and pg&e. >> reporter: yeah, we heard the last update at about 4:45 this evening, we are not going to be getting any other updates from crews unless we reach out to them personally and ask more questions about what's going on throughout the evening hours. what we do know at the time that geary will remain closed over the night, and that many people are going to be displaced, we are not getting hard number on that, not sure how the people will be displayed, but i do want to show you the senior. that fire was flowing there about two hours 15 minutes. everything is out. the fire damage from the buildings above and on the ground, and a number of pg&e crews are here working. they wrapped up what looked like a meeting ther

doing their best. >> reporter: pg&e crews were inspecting after fire was knocked down. mayor london breed showed up, praised work of first responders. >> no one was injured or hurt 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, liveiveiveiveive >> 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 terror. >> i was by the park and heard something,

pg&e rates by march 1. and so we're anticipating to follow their pace for when rates would change. we're not expecting anything to change from the proposal we provided just the lay and implementation. so at this point customers are continuing to pay our current rates and they represent a 2% savings against pg&e's cost after the exit fee. we'll keep updating you as we watch the activities with pg&e rates and our implementation will follow theirs and it brings me to their announcement of bankruptcy. it's been covered in the press this week. we've clear pg&e's planning to file for bankruptcy by january 29 due to their impending liabilities they face from the state wildfires in 2017 and 2018. they filed january 13 a form 8k at the u.s. securities and exchange commission that described the problem they're facing and why they're intended to file for bankruptcy on or about january 29 and on january 14 as required by state law, pg&e notified employees of it's intent to file for bankruptcy within 15 days. they provi

pg&e said it was third party workers. listen to dispatchers. >> we are not going to distinction the main. >> put the water on the building. the building -- >> the gas explosion happened right in front of the hong kong lounge ii restaurant in the corner of geary and parker. let's begin with vic lee, the first to arrive on scene. >> reporter: as you said, the fire is out, but still plenty of activity down there at geary and parker. let me step aside. give you a closer look. it is dark here now. you can see pg&e crews doing their job, repairing the street where the fire was. the firefighters have more or less left the scene. they were earlier assessing the buildings going into those five buildings looking to see just how damage had happened there. police chief william scott appeared here briefly about an hour ago. he said that he would like people to try to avoid area, all o this work will take time. he wants people to stay away in the meantime. let me show you what it looked like earlier today. incredible flames shooting 30

pg&e sent a person to mark the pipe. there's a lot of questions that remain unanswered how all of this could have happened. a pg&e spokesman says they are hoping to have the gas customers back online and they've extra staff on duty through the night to safely relight the pilot lights. >> many people heard the boom, others got a knock on the door and told to evacuate with. a hundred residents won't be allowed back home tonight. we continue with amber lee, she's talked to people near the scene of that explosion. >> there's a very active scene behind me. we can see crews using heavy machinery. some people who were evacuated are staying with friends tonight. >> huge flames from hong kong lounge. it was a sound of an explosion that alerted neighbors that something was wrong. >> it sound like a bomb went of. >> joseph went outside and shot video what he was witnessing. a restaurant on fire. >> looking at the flames. that restaurant is always packed. it's scary. >> scared neighbors were evacuated from the their homes. >> there

pg&e is trying to get proactive, recording a $10.5 billion charge related to the campfire. that's on top of 3.4 million for fires the previous two years. pg&e's interim ceo john simon said in a report, we recognize that more must be done to adapt to and address the increasing threat of wildfires and extreme weather, in order to keep our customers and community safe. pg&e filed for bankruptcy protection in january, citing liability causes expected to top $30 billion. >>> new details today at noon. family members have identified the woman who was buried by a landslide in san francisco. 22-year-old tyra sunshine scarlet was buried underneath the rubble. she was walking her dog with a friend when the landslide happened. the coast guard was able to rescue her friend. and officials say the high tide could have washed scarlet's body out into the ocean. still not certain, though. >>> in emeryville, three people were killed when a minivan crashed into a big rig, stopped on the side of westbound interstate 80. this happened around 1:00 this morning near powell street. according to th

it was up to pg&e to shut it down. it took more than two hours. >> as the fire chief, as a resident, the super the better. they're working very diligently, pg&e. yes, i would have liked to have seen it mitigated sooner. >> reporter: they assessed the situation, navigated through a slew of lines all the while following state law. >> state law mandates if we know there is a gas line within 24 inches beneath the surface, we have to hand dig. you can imagine trying to hand dig in asphalt. >> reporter: some lost their homes, others out temporarily. no reports of even a single injury. >> reporter: you can see the crews out here tonight. just about everybody has their gas and their power back. a number of investigations are underway. terry mcsweeney. bay area news. >>> we were on the air for four straight hours this afternoon. during that time, we obtained the fire dispatch audio. that dispatcher knew what they weea take a listen. >> put the water on! >> reporter: you can their woman say put the water on the building. not the

pg&e says quote. our isolation plan was focussed on balancing minimizing large scale gas outages and safely shutting gas. gas service would have been lost to nearly the entire city of san francisco. >> sam brock with us live. you're there on site talking to the investigators. do they seem to be poipting blame at pg&e? or understanding what they're experiencing. >> they are not blaming pg&e for per se. but the history with gas lines is a reason why. ntsb came out. this is the fifth time they've been here since 1981. the first time the gas hin was on for nine hours. there's a succession of incidents here. when it comes to the lines here a transmission line is a high powered line. coming out in 2010 there was a law passed that required automatic remote turn turning off. this was a distribution line. a small line. a completely different story. if they want to turn it off other than digging in the ground they have to cut off power to all of san francisco. that's a difficult and delicate situation to try an

pg&e said today mass tech did call and theer rked. but pg&e has faced problems with its 811 system. a former commissioner with the p.u.c. tells me she has questions. >> was there an inaccuracy in the marking? what happened to the system and this is also why the investigation that the p.u.c. launched in 2018 was important into this very program. >> in december, the p.u.c.p.u.c. broken law. they found pg&e undercounted tens of thousands of late ticket each year between 2012 and 2016. then, of course, is the bigger question. why did it take more than two hours to turn off the gas? they apparently couldn't find a valve, so they had to resort to digging by hand in the street. finally i can crimping the gas lane closed. dan noyes, abc 7 news. >>> verizon issued a statement about their role. we understand that company is cooperating with the investigators as they determine the root cause of the incident. the fiber installation has been halted pending the outcome of an investigation by local authorities. >> we're working in close coordination with the public safety officials and understand

by law the contractor is supposed to request pg&e to mark the location of the gas lines, and pg&e mustar whether that happened. the contractor, mas-tec, based out of florida says they are cooperating with investigators have no comment until the investigation is complete. kiet do, kpix 5. >>> the pg&e wildfire plan could mean more power shutdowns this season meaning cutting down fire to 5.4 million homes during the wildfire episodes. they could see more trees removed and vegetation trimmed around the equipment there will be a final plan before it is finalized. >>> a tanker truck fire forced closures lasting hours after the tanker burst into flames at 8 pm last night at saratoga avenue but luckily no one was injured. >>> one woman is dead after the fire in the mobile home park in contra costa county at bethel island just before 1 am. eay so the crews from antioch had to respond in the cause of the fire is under investigation. >>> a woman with bay area ties is accusing virginia lieutenant governor justin fairfax of sexual assault. vanessa says he attacked her in 2004 and the lieutenant go

what is going on with pg&e has shifted our best laid plans a little bit. i want to recognize on the record the momentum towards public banking this year. i want to noncommittally suggest that we consider agendizing the public bank stuff in the next few meetings. >> thank you very much. any members of the public? >> one last time eric brooks. all of the groups i mentioned before. yes, on your next agenda before the joint meeting with sfpc please start unpacking this municipalization process and what it means and implications. another thing to focus on is that in the last pg&e bankruptcy after enron they took $5 billion and shuttled to the wall street parent corporation and then the ratepayers paid $5 billion for no reason whatsoever except for the shell game. we need to protect ourselves both locally and on the state level against games like that. then i want to also one quick note on the uber lyft thing, it would be helpful to the public if the executive officer could start putting the words such as uber and lyft in the lines of that item. a lay person wou

pg&e still provides gas. >> they have the choice of either pg&e or ebce. >> livermore council member explains the city council, along with 11 other cities voted to enroll residents, but people have the option to opt out and livermore has the highest opt out rate of any city. >> area ride, the opt out rate is less than 3%. in livermore, it's more than 7%. why do you think that is? >> well, i think a lot of the concern leading to the opt out rates has been generated by social media. >> she points to confusing bills. >> is it possible anyone's bill went up because they transitioned to this company? >> >> east bay energy notes th price for kilowatt is actually cheaper than pg&e's posted rates by 1.5%. while the savings is small, the switch came just as temperatures dropped and people started using more energy. >> what you can see here is that their usage in december was considerably lower than their usage in january. >> also seasonal increases and the cost of gas, which shows up on the pg&e bill. >> the bill honestly is very confusing. >> she explains to calculate your savings, flip to p

pg&e said there were multiple lines in the area. pg&e's representative we spoke with, they didn't know if there was an automatic shut-off valve for this particular line, but pg&e did say in a press conference this afternoon that it takes time to hand dig to get to the point where it could actually shut off service, and they are required by law to hand dig, they say, in these situations. >> there are a few different approaches you can take, both trenching and squeezing off the line. there are valves that we would also be able to locate and turn the gas off that way as well. and there are some construction crews on site right now that are trenching and looking at what we're able to -- >> reporter: options. >> options that we can to get the flow of gas. >> reporter: now that the flames are out, the investigation begins. the good news in all of this, at least so far there are no reports of any injuries, and certainly no fatalities. we do need to note that gas will be impacting at least 300 residents, and it is already very cold out here

. >>> sticker shock for a lot of pg&e customers tonight, their latest bills were through the roof and the sudden spike has absolutely nothing to do with the winter weather. >> a hibernation hiatus in the sierra, tahoe's bears aren't sleeping through the winters anymore because we are keeping them awake. >> we're keeping our eye on this storm that's approaching just getting started tonight. paul's full forecast is coming up. if you live in the east bay.. you may be paying for renewable energy to power your home.. and not even know it. kpix 5's susie steimle reports: many pg&e news.. >>> if you live in the east bay, you may be paying for renewable energy to power your home and not even know it. kpix5's susie steimle reports many pg&e customers first got the news when they opened their last bill. rgy is more expensive. ((pk er had a pg&e >> reporter: a new type of energy company now powers 11 communities in the east bay, but the bill surprised customers and many worry this renewable energy might be more expensive. >> i've never had a pg&e bill this high. >> reporter: when samantha duffy

a spokesperson for pg&e. and the big question here among us was why did it take them so long to shut off the gas? his answer was that this was a complex situation. they have to come up with a plan that took some time. and then there are gas, water and electric lines under ground that so they have to work very carefully not to disrupt or cut those lines. the other thing was that state law mandates that pg&e hand dig through asphalt. and that's exactly what he says their crews did. in order to pinch the gas lines and shut off the lines. they had to do it by hand. that takes time. and they had to of course do all of this as safely as possible. and the pg&e spokesman said that often means doing it slowly. those are the reasons that the pg&e spokesman gave to our question why did it take so long. it's an important question. this is earthquake country. so that's the very latest here from gearing and parker street. lots of activity there on the street. back to you in the studio. by the way there will be no more brie

flames towered 40 feet high when a contractor struck a pg&e gas line. the ntsb announced investigators will be taking a section of the damaged fuel line to washington for inspection, and they're looking into how long it's taken pg&e to shut off the gas in several incidents over the years. >> in 2008, it was two hours and 47 minutes. in 2010 in san bruno it was 95 minutes, and in this pipeline incident, it appears to be two hours. >> ntsb investigators say pg&e crews decided to dig into concrete to get closer to the gas line, because they thought it would be a faster way to turn it off. >>> cal trans is planning to do more work this week on the richmond-san rafael bridge. drivers should expect delays. overnight, crews did finish a temporary repair, they bolted a larger steel plate onto the bridge's upper deck, after crumbling concrete fell on cars on thursday. cal trans will start work on a long-term fix over the next few days, weather permitting. the trouble spot is something called an expansion joint, which apparently needs regular maintenance. >>> now