A batch of natural gas coming down a Pacific Northwest pipeline was mistakenly produced with too much odorant -- the stuff called mercaptan that smells like sulfur that they add to the usually odorless gas so that you can detect a leak. This means a great many people in the easterly Bay Area may turn on their gas stoves to an especially yucky smell for the next day or so, and PG&E will be getting a whole shitload of calls from paranoid people who get a whiff and think there's a problem. The smelly gas has already set off odor alarms at PG&E's own compressor stations. An official from the company says the smell should dissipate after today and that not all customers will smell it because multiple pipelines feed gas to the area. more ›

Forty people were evacuated from a San Rafael apartment building after a gas leak spread throughout parts of Fourth Street. According to KCBS, "[a] leak in the West End neighborhood near Fourth Street and H Street was first reported on Wednesday night around 8:30 p.m.," then a building was evacuated at around 4:15 a.m. this morning. KCBS goes on to say that "PG&E expects to have both pipes capped by noon on Thursday." more ›

According to a few frantic Twitter messages this morning, a moving van plowed into the side of a building, either near Dolores Park or somewhere in the Tenderloin. more ›