Jour 61 - New Story #3

Gas Line Break

You're a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. You get a call from a business owner near Folsom and 11th Streets in San Francisco. That's known as the South of Market area. He says that a high-pressure gas pipe has ruptured. You head out to the scene.

Here's what you see. The police have cordoned off all the surrounding streets, effectively shutting down a four-block area.

A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. person tells you that a private construction crew was trying to repair sewer lines. In the process, they severed a two-inch underground gas pipe with a backhoe, he said. It happened a little before 12:30 p.m.

You look around. Traffic is at a standstill. It's really snarled. (Both Folsom and 11th are heavily traveled thoroughfares.) People are standing around at the edges of the area. You start walking the perimeter of the site interviewing people, starting with the ones who look really irate.

When you finish, you've figured out that at least 100 people were forced to leave the area, including neighborhood residents, dozens of business owners and their customers.

One person you interview is Carlann Lauria, manager of Crocker's Lockers. She says, "Ask my customers. They were pretty irate." Crocker's Lockers is a self-storage company on Folsom near 10th Street. The employees kept busy. They went outside the police perimeter to collect payment checks from their customers.

You talk with another manager, Samantha Feldman of Wa-Ha-Ka restaurant. She says her employees and patrons were forced to leave. The restaurant's at the corner where the construction crew had been working. Feldman said the restaurant lost about $500 worth of business in the shutdown.

You go back to the paper and start writing the story. It will appear in tomorrow's edition. You still haven't found out when the gas will be turned back on. You keep calling PG&E and, and they finally they tell you that the gas was turned back on at 5:09 p.m. You wrap up your story and transmit it to your editor.