San Bruno - Restoring a Community

Even before the flames from a September 9, 2010 pipeline explosion, that claimed 8 lives and destroyed 35 homes, were extinguished, it was evident that a highly-coordinated effort would be needed to mitigate the public health threats and environmental damage caused by the ash and debris from the explosion. San Mateo County Environmental Health established a multi-agency team to coordinate resources from across a myriad of State and Federal agencies. The Health Officer issued a Public Health declaration due to concerns that mishandled debris could pose further pose a threat. Efforts to recycle as much as possible helped keep costs down. Without a coordinated debris removal effort, the costs to the homeowners and the City would have been much higher, and it would have taken owners much longer to rebuild and restore their community.

Two days after the explosion, household hazardous waste was collected from the 35 properties. Following this, the County established Right of Entry agreements with each of the property owners, giving full access to the properties with a commitment to return properties to the owners in a state that “a three-year-old could safely walk on.” Before initiating debris removal activities, Environmental Health developed a Health and Safety protocol to allow residents to safely access the area to document losses and salvage personal items. Because this was a difficult time for the community, mental health support was also available. A Debris Removal Operation Center (DROC) was established and operated under incident command protocol. Debris removal began 11 days after the fire. Less than four weeks after debris removal began, the DROC was able to demobilize, with all 35 lots cleared. 58 percent of the 7,891 tons of material removed from the neighborhood was recycled. This operation will also serve as a scalable model that can be used to address debris removal operations in other larger disaster events.