A gas line rupture possibly caused by a landslide shut down all lanes of the Golden State (5) Freeway in the Castaic area Saturday as crews worked to turn off the gas.
The initial call of the ruptured gas line and possible explosion came about by 4:20 p.m. Saturday on a hill above the Golden State Freeway just north of Lake Hughes Road, California Highway Patrol Officer M. Curtiss told City News Service.
Video from the scene showed a large cloud of debris floating toward the freeway and a loud whoosh sound could be heard.
Area resident Philip Perry told KeyNews that he heard an explosion and his house shook. He heard a sound similar to a jet engine when he went outside and saw a cloud.
The CHP issued a SigAlert shutting down both sides of the Golden State Freeway, with northbound traffic diverted to state Route 126 and southbound traffic diverted to Pearblossom Highway (state Route 138), Curtiss said.
A West Los Angeles resident driving home from a holiday excursion on the southbound Golden State Freeway described to City News Service the traffic chaos that ensued as a result of the closures. “I was somewhere around Buttonwillow (in the San Joaquin Valley) when the GPS started flipping out and showing all sorts of red … road closures on southbound 5 — like a four-hour drive and alternate routes,” said Paul Vercammen, who described a circuitous journey that took his family along the 58 Freeway through off-the-beaten-path locations in Kern County including Mojave, Arvin and past the Bakersfield National Cemetery.
The longtime Southland resident said he was familiar with the roadways and had driven them before. “It seemed like the safest route,” he said, “and then, it was smooth sailing after that.”
However, Vercammen called the congestion a “traffic nightmare,” adding, that he felt “awful for people who got stuck.”
The raw egg smell of natural gas was reported to the Los Angeles Fire Department from residents in Granada Hills, Porter Ranch and Sylmar. LAFD spokeswoman Jennifer Middleton relayed that the Los Angeles County Fire Department confirmed the gas line rupture. The Gas Company and county fire department were working to contain the leak.
There was no immediate threat in the city of Los Angeles, Middleton said.
NBC4 video was reporting residents near the rupture have been told to shelter in place.