Belmont Lends a Helping Hand to San Bruno

In more ways than one, Belmont residents and city authorities are proving they won't let San Bruno shoulder the burden of last month's explosion and fire alone.

On the Sunday following the Sept. 9 fire, 10 teens in Belmont's youth group VOICES volunteered their time to collect cash donations on the corner of Ralston Avenue and Alameda de las Pulgas, according to Erica Spacher, the director of the group.

Some people passed $50 bills out their car windows to the teens, Spacher said, and the group ended up raising $1,000 for victims of the fire.

"It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," she said. "I was literally in tears."

Belmont fire and police officials also stepped up to aid San Bruno in the hours and days following the fire.

Belmont police provided traffic control at the scene and monitored access to the clean-up site, according to Belmont Police Capt. Dan DeSmidt, while Belmont firefighters joined the 525 emergency response workers and 85 fire engines that responded to the natural gas-line explosion.

Belmont-San Carlos Fire Chief Dennis Fry, mutual aid coordinator for San Mateo County, directed fire personnel and said the explosion that razed homes in the neighborhood near Claremont Drive and claimed the lives of eight people is unlike any local disaster Fry had ever seen.

"This is the first time we have been the recipient of this kind of event," said Fry, who has worked with the department for 35 years. "It's extremely overwhelming."

Every fire department in San Mateo County responded to the explosion, as well as departments from across the Bay Area including as far north as Novato, Fry said.

He said 40 of San Mateo County's 50 fire trucks arrived in San Bruno within 15 minutes of the explosion, which left 10 trucks to handle all other emergencies countywide.

Belmont also provided hazardous material clean-up crews and building inspectors to assist with the post-explosion response, according to Fry.

Responding to such a crisis has provided valuable learning experiences for emergency personnel, Fry said.

"There will be some teaching moments, we will definitely learn and grow from this," he said. "You never do it perfect, you do it the best you can, and my hat goes off to everyone who helped get a handle on it."

The importance of ensuring there are enough radios in the same frequency to communicate across all agencies on a disaster scene is another important lesson to take from the experience, according to Fry.

"It was controlled chaos," Fry said. "It was unified and no one was over anxious. If you talk to people that have large scale events like this, everyone wants to come and help, but we don't have the exact listing of who is all there. It's all about discipline. People had to make decisions they never thought they would have to make in their life."

Some of the greatest difficulties facing firefighters the evening of the explosion was the lack of access to water, and the amount of time it took for the gas line to be shut off, said Fry.

"It took 53 minutes to shut off the gas," he said. "That's a lot of fires going on in that window of time."

Belmont's assistance has cost the city about $50,000, but City Manager Greg Scoles said local and federal funds will reimburse the expenses provided by Belmont.

Fry said 75 percent of Belmont's financial reimbursement will come from FEMA, 19 percent will come from the Cal Fire assistance agreement and the remaining six percent will likely come from the City of San Bruno.

He estimated the entire mutual aid bill will total more than $5 million.