# SAN DIEGO GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-05-23 **Citation:** PHMSA Report 20120064 **Type / status:** incident / historical **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** 2012-05-23 **Published:** 2012-06-15 Gas transmission and gathering incident in SAN DIEGO, SAN DIEGO County, CA. Reported cause: OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0 NATURAL GAS released, $36,000 reported property damage. Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings. PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious. ## Document text Gas transmission and gathering incident in SAN DIEGO, SAN DIEGO County, CA. Reported cause: OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0 NATURAL GAS released, $36,000 reported property damage. Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings. Report number: 20120064. Operator ID: 18112. Reported incident date: 5/23/2012 9:43. Location detail: 45.73 Cause detail: NEARBY INDUSTRIAL, MAN-MADE, OR OTHER FIRE/EXPLOSION AS PRIMARY CAUSE OF INCIDENT Cause detail: DURING PLANNED PIPELINE BLOWDOWN, ESCAPING GAS IGNITED AT LOCATION OF OVERHEAD ELECTRICAL FACILITIES. GAS WAS SHUT OFF IMMEDIATELY, STOPPING FIRE. NON-ENERGIZED STATIC LINE DROPPED ACROSS ROADWAY AND WAS STUCK BY 2 VEHICLES. DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTS WERE PERFORMED ON 8 SDG&E EMPLOYEES AND 5 CONTRACTORS. ALL PASSED. THE IMMEDIATE CORRECTION IS TO TAKE AN ELECTRIC OUTAGE ON ALL OVERHEAD ELECTRIC CIRCUITS NEAR BLOWDOWN SITES. IF THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE, A SITE EVALUATION WILL BE PERFORMED BY A QUALIFIED CONSULTANT TO DETERMINE THE SAFE DISTANCE WHEREBY A BLOWDOWN MAY BE PERFORMED. THE PERMANENT SOLUTION IS TO DEVELOP A SET OF GUIDELINES LISTING THE DISTANCES, VOLTAGES, WEATHER CONDITIONS, ETC., WHEREBY BLOWDOWNS MAY BE SAFELY PERFORMED AT ANY SITE. ANY BLOWDOWN DEVIATING FROM THOSE GUIDELINES WOULD REQUIRE A SITE-SPECIFIC EVALUATION. PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious. PHMSA standardized cause: OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE — FIRE/EXPLOSION AS PRIMARY CAUSE. PHMSA indexed costs: $69,240 reported total cost, $36,542.723 in 1984 dollars, $89,745.989 in current-year dollars. PHMSA trend flags, standardized causes, and indexed costs are analytical fields added to operator-reported incident data. They do not represent final agency causal findings. ## Provenance - Official: Yes - Source: - Source ID: `phmsa-pipeline-incidents` - SHA-256: `1bd209ad6150dde8312906c14a0677242f7d39abf6ac9e44bd649c517f68682c` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z - Exported: 2026-08-26T04:55:38.792Z - Document slug: `phmsa-incident-98d04e2937b69ef44f755a5a` ### Source metadata ```json { "recordKind": "pipeline_incident", "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering", "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering", "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present", "report": { "number": "20120064", "supplementalNumber": "15684", "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL FINAL", "receivedDate": "2012-06-15", "receivedDateRaw": "6/15/2012" }, "operator": { "id": "18112", "name": "SAN DIEGO GAS & ELECTRIC CO" }, "incident": { "date": "2012-05-23", "dateRaw": "5/23/2012 9:43" }, "location": { "city": "SAN DIEGO", "county": "SAN DIEGO", "state": "CA", "postalCode": "92122", "latitude": 32.84887, "longitude": -117.18463, "type": "PIPELINE RIGHT-OF-WAY", "details": { "DESIGNATED_NAME": "45.73" }, "facilityName": "LINE 3010" }, "cause": { "category": "OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE", "details": { "CAUSE_DETAILS": "NEARBY INDUSTRIAL, MAN-MADE, OR OTHER FIRE/EXPLOSION AS PRIMARY CAUSE OF INCIDENT", "NARRATIVE": "DURING PLANNED PIPELINE BLOWDOWN, ESCAPING GAS IGNITED AT LOCATION OF OVERHEAD ELECTRICAL FACILITIES. GAS WAS SHUT OFF IMMEDIATELY, STOPPING FIRE. NON-ENERGIZED STATIC LINE DROPPED ACROSS ROADWAY AND WAS STUCK BY 2 VEHICLES. DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTS WERE PERFORMED ON 8 SDG&E EMPLOYEES AND 5 CONTRACTORS. ALL PASSED. THE IMMEDIATE CORRECTION IS TO TAKE AN ELECTRIC OUTAGE ON ALL OVERHEAD ELECTRIC CIRCUITS NEAR BLOWDOWN SITES. IF THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE, A SITE EVALUATION WILL BE PERFORMED BY A QUALIFIED CONSULTANT TO DETERMINE THE SAFE DISTANCE WHEREBY A BLOWDOWN MAY BE PERFORMED. THE PERMANENT SOLUTION IS TO DEVELOP A SET OF GUIDELINES LISTING THE DISTANCES, VOLTAGES, WEATHER CONDITIONS, ETC., WHEREBY BLOWDOWNS MAY BE SAFELY PERFORMED AT ANY SITE. ANY BLOWDOWN DEVIATING FROM THOSE GUIDELINES WOULD REQUIRE A SITE-SPECIFIC EVALUATION." } }, "consequences": { "fatalities": 0, "injuries": 0, "commodity": "NATURAL GAS", "release": "0", "propertyDamage": 36000, "estimatedOperatorCost": 32000, "estimatedEmergencyCost": 1000, "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null, "ignition": "YES", "explosion": "NO", "evacuated": 0, "raw": { "FATAL": "0", "INJURE": "0", "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "0", "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "36000", "PRPTY": "69240" } }, "provenance": { "viewId": "27nc-rsge", "viewUrl": "https://data.transportation.gov/api/views/27nc-rsge", "assetId": "2b05c2d8-d14a-4c56-ac1c-7d23a4bc31c8", "archiveFilename": "Gas Transmission & Gathering Incident Data - January 2010 to present.zip", "archiveSha256": "fe0b136ca4b00ac987a8bc2e195098accf910d97512c5fc3b59e62d9da5f674e", "memberPath": "incident_gas_transmission_gathering_jan2010_present.txt", "memberSha256": "b435f2a25718cf54c54e00294e6788c4f9c6860e02fb86355e75d294c243c4dd", "rowNumber": 1707, "rowSha256": "3412c7da66a038068de24ebdbd8da59c7134a75031477d4c3e57ff19c6f7b1de" }, "caveat": "Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings.", "operatorReported": true, "finalAgencyFinding": false, "flaggedAnalysis": { "dataAsOf": "2026-07-31", "flags": { "fireFirst": null, "significant": false, "serious": false }, "standardizedCause": { "sevenCategory": "OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE", "sevenSubcategory": "FIRE/EXPLOSION AS PRIMARY CAUSE", "eightCategory": "OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE", "eightSubcategory": "FIRE/EXPLOSION AS PRIMARY CAUSE" }, "costs": { "reported": 69240, "in1984Dollars": 36542.72283298097, "currentYearDollars": 89745.988794926 }, "caveat": "PHMSA trend flags, standardized causes, and indexed costs are analytical fields added to operator-reported incident data. They do not represent final agency causal findings.", "provenance": { "sourceUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/data_statistics/pipeline/PHMSA_Pipeline_Safety_Flagged_Incidents.zip", "landingPageUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/pipeline-incident-flagged-files", "catalogUrl": "https://data.transportation.gov/Pipelines-and-Hazmat/Pipeline-Incident-Flagged-Files/qdme-9bbm", "retrievalMode": "official_live", "archivedAt": null, "archiveSha256": "317e6a3e16d60b9b677efe391dc40258b5dd7ead83fb8bea74cb553cedfbbdec", "workbook": "gtggungs2010toPresent.xlsx", "sheet": "gtggungs2010toPresent", "rowNumber": 285, "rowSha256": "1ac9324309de9042de637b11743edb677b9495b20211573aa811e2cacdfba26d" } }, "jurisdiction": "US", "operatorName": "SAN DIEGO GAS & ELECTRIC CO" } ```