Near Bay Point, California, outside of San Francisco, thousands of people are evacuated while a grass fire threatens a natural gas pipeline



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Bay Point, California – A power line failure on Wednesday night caused a grass fire near here, triggering the evacuation of an area of ​​one kilometer and threatening an important connection. Chevron pipeline, reports CBS San Francisco. Local fire officials say that 4,000 people out of 1,400 homes have been cleaned up.

Chevron officials stated that they had been contacted around 8 pm. to inform them of the fire. A statement from the company said that they "had immediately cut the line and sent a field team to investigate," as well as put in place emergency procedures.

The head of the Contra Costa fire brigade, Jim Huntze, said that the fire had broken out along a railway line near an underground pipeline coming from a Chevron refinery.

Several departments ran on the scene, he said.

At around 11 am, evacuations were ordered for anyone within 800 meters of the site:

The police in Pittsburgh, Calif., And the sheriff of Contra Costa County went door-to-door to help people evacuate. Residents of the area were asked to prepare to stay away overnight.

The sheriff's office used its community alert system to tell residents to "go now" and go to an evacuation center, taking only "basic items" with them.

At one point, fire officials tweeted an explanation intended to calm some nerves:

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