Property buyers expect legally required disclosure statements to reveal real and potential hazards.
But those statements probably won't reveal the presence of nearby natural-gas transmission lines because of "security reasons."
Explain that to victims of the San Bruno, Calif. gas-line explosion that killed at least four persons, injured dozens and destroyed or damaged scores of residences this week.
A shallow 30-inch-wide trunk line, built 54 years ago, ruptured and ignited inexplicably--creating a massive crater and sending a huge fireball of flame soaring above the suburb.
It wasn't your garden-variety gas malfunction, the kind that sends faulty water heaters rocketing through roofs.
Utilities routinely caution consumers to immediately report any rotten-egg smells. San Brunoites followed that advice several days ago, but inspectors apparently could not find the source.
Now they know. (12 SEPTEMBER 2010)
