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American Morning

Gas Explosion Rocks San Bruno Neighborhood; Koran Burning Firestorm

Aired September 10, 2010 - 05:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A terrible, terrible tragedy has fallen on our city this afternoon. Our main concern as public officials here, making sure our citizens are safe.

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JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: State of emergency in a San Francisco suburb this morning. A powerful gas line explosion triggering a deadly destructive inferno. Dozens of homes have been destroyed. Heat hot enough to crack car windshields from blocks away, melt their taillights as well, and people seen literally running for their lives.

Good morning. Thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING, on this Friday, the 10th of September. It's a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. I'm John Roberts.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. As we've been on since 5:00 Eastern Time as we continue to monitor the latest developments in this story, meantime, there's also a new twist today in the Koran burning that was planned for tomorrow on 9/11. Still wondering this morning will it happen. The pastor behind it said no but seemed to leave a small window open. We're going to get a live report from John Zarrella. He is in Gainesville, Florida, in just a few minutes.

First, though, we continue with the breaking news. We're getting new details this morning of exactly what may have happened just south of San Francisco. You're looking at video of an explosion. It was so loud that people who were in the neighborhood thought a plane had crashed.

Dozens are hurt, some critically burned. One person confirmed dead and those numbers are expected to climb higher once firefighters can get back into that burned-out neighborhood and go door to door later today.

ROBERTS: One of the reasons why people thought that a plane might have crashed is this area where this pipeline explosion happened is just a couple of miles away from San Francisco International Airport, about 10, 12 miles south of the city. It was just after 6:00 local time when all hell broke loose.

Dan Simon is live in San Bruno for us this morning with the very latest. He's been working his sources. And the big question this morning, Dan, have they been able to turn off the flow of gas that's been fueling that inferno?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, that's the good news. No more gas in that neighborhood. They've got it shut down so that now they can concentrate on the flames.

Let me tell you where we are. We are here at the command center. This is where everything is being dictated. This is where the resources are starting and then they wind up at the fire scene about a half mile from where I'm standing. Earlier we were actually in the thick of it, and I want to show you what it looked like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: There were early reports that a plane may have crashed into the hillside. Those reports were not true, but you can understand when you get here why some may have been under that impression.

When fires crews got here, this neighborhood where we are was just totally engulfed in flames. You can see right now firefighters, all they can really do is take a defensive stance, try to put out some of these flames and try to prevent some of the other homes from catching on fire.

Here's another vantage point of some homes that caught fire. You can see behind us just four or five homes totally leveled. Fire crews not doing anything over there.

A few minutes ago we heard a very loud explosion. We didn't know what it was. It turned out to be this white station wagon, some kind of car explosion. So that's another thing that crews out here have to deal with.

We are right next to what we think was Ground Zero. You can see behind me everything is completely leveled. To give you an idea just how hot this fire was, I want to show you this.

Look at the back of this white Volkswagen. The heat just melting this taillight. And if you walk to the front, you can see that the explosion caused the concrete to travel a great distance. It's just lying here on the windshield of this car, a little chunk of it.

One of the big problems firefighters are dealing with right now is the wind. You can see it on this crime scene tape just kind of blowing around and you can see it with this smoke. That's helping to spread the flames.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: And the wind has died down. That is the good news. Hopefully fire crews will soon be able to get an upper hand on this blaze. The latest figure we were told is 50 percent containment. Some of the other numbers that we've been told but we know that they're likely going to go up. We were told that 53 homes were destroyed, about 120 homes damaged. Thirty-eight people taken to the hospitals with various injuries and one confirmed fatality.

I spoke to one firefighter who said because this happened just after 6:00 local time as people were coming home from work, no doubt, in his mind, you're going to see that death toll rise.

Meanwhile, we want to let you hear from some of the evacuees as they were fleeing this inferno. It was really quite dramatic for a lot of them. Some of them just leaving with the clothes on their backs not knowing if they would come back to homes that were still standing. Let's listen to what some of them had to say.

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SIMON: Did you hear the explosion?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes. Yes. It was huge. It felt like an earthquake, a big one. And I got scared. I mean, I've felt them before, but this one was -- the whole house shook. And I got up to go into a doorway and my living room filled with an orange glow. And when I went to my front door, glass front, I looked out and everything was just flames.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: Another witness told me that he saw the flames coming towards his house. He got into his garage, drove off. And as he was looking through his rearview mirror, he could see that the flames had already reached his house. It was that close.

In terms of how this all started, we know that there was a gas line rupture. We don't know how that occurred. But one interesting thing to note here is a neighbor is telling a local television station that he actually detected the smell of gas for three weeks. Said that PG&E, the utility company, actually came out and investigated but he could still smell that gas odor. We reached out to a PG&E spokesperson. He said it was too early for him to comment about that but one thing that spokesperson did say is that if it's determined that the utility is responsible, they will take full accountability for what happened -- John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: Dan, looking at some aerial pictures here from our affiliate KTVU of the pipeline rupture, the crater that it's caused, the proximity to houses, looking at some satellite photos of the area, there's nothing that would obviously seem like a pipeline right-of- way. This thing looks like it was threaded right through the neighborhood in a very large gas main right through the neighborhood, you know, very close to these homes.

SIMON: Certainly appears that way. Just when you consider how many homes immediately were engulfed by those flames, it appeared, as you were saying, that that gas line was just right behind some of those houses. And, you know, the real question is what happened. Was there some kind of construction going on in that area? Was the gas line unstable? Those are the questions that hopefully, you know, we'll get some answers as soon as we get some daylight.

CHETRY: And, Dan, also, the San Bruno fire chief when he was speaking a little earlier said that it may be tomorrow afternoon before they're able to actually get in there, do a full search. But as we heard from Bryan Carmody, the freelance photographer who shot this video, there are rumblings within the rescuers and firefighters who were there that they very well may see the number of dead climb much higher once they get a full assessment.

SIMON: Well, and we're hearing the same thing, that they're not going to be able to get into these homes until, you know, they feel comfortable that the area is safe. One thing they're asking neighbors to do is to go to the area shelters and give their address, explain that they got out. Tell them that their family members got out and try to get some sort of head count that way just by matching the addresses with the homes that went down. So, again, that's something that they're urging neighbors to do.

ROBERTS: All right. Dan Simon for us this morning in San Bruno. We'll be getting back to Dan throughout the morning as well. Dan, thanks so much. He's been working all night on this story.

No cause of the initial explosion has yet to be determined. It would seem pretty obvious that a gas line rupture is to blame for the huge blast and the ensuing fire.

CHETRY: Right. But there's a lot of questions as to whether or not there were complaints about a gas smell and whether or not those complaints were properly addressed. There are people who live in that neighborhood who said that they had reported the smell of gas three weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM GUTIERREZ, SAN BRUNO RESIDENT: It started around three weeks ago in my neighborhood. PG&E had came out. I was working in my garage. They told me to shut the door, shut the garage and go inside, that there was real heavy strong gases. After being in the neighborhood for a little bit, they packed up and left. But the real heavy smell was right down the street at the next stop sign. Every day after work, I would smell the heavy smell coming from the gutter and sewer right there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And from what you know, what did PG&E do about this? How long was the smell going on? What did they tell you to do?

GUTIERREZ: They told us nothing. I mean, I don't know how anybody cannot repair a smell like that and not find that smell especially going into neighborhoods. There are other neighborhoods that have smelled the same smell, really strong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And for how long have you smelled this?

GUTIERREZ: For a good three weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did they tell you to do?

GUTIERREZ: When the head came out, they asked up to shut the door and go inside the house. That was it. And you can see as what had happened. This is ridiculous.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Pacific Gas and Electric released a statement overnight. This is all we've heard from them so far. Part of that statement says, quote, "Though a cause has yet to be determined, we know that a PG&E gas transmission line was ruptured. If it is ultimately determined that we were responsible for the cause of the incident, we will take accountability."

And joining us now for more on this is the mayor of San Bruno, California, Jim Ruane. Jim, thanks so much for being with us. I know it's been a long night for you. Give us the lay of the land right there close to the area where this pipeline ruptured. We know that a number of homes have been destroyed, one fatality at this point. What does it look like on the ground? How are you expecting this to unfold in the hours to come?

MAJOR JAMES RUANE, SAN BRUNO, CALIFORNIA: Well, unfortunately, if it's a sunny day tomorrow it's still going to be very cloudy in San Bruno. We've experienced a massive tragedy and we won't know the full extent probably for tomorrow and maybe a couple of days after that. The fire crews and the first responders have really not had a chance to get into the area because of residual fires and some of the gas that's still on the residential lines. So they're going to have to wait until daylight to make it safe for them to go down and see the full extent of this tragedy.

CHETRY: Have you been able to get any handle on the situation for the people there who had to be evacuated? As Dan Simon said there was an attempt to match addresses so that you can figure out who made it out OK and who may have not.

RUANE: Yes. I was actually involved in interviews down at the Bay Hill Shopping center where a lot of people were taken preliminarily to make sure that they weren't missing family members. We wanted their contact information. We wanted to reassure them that by tomorrow morning we'd have a hot line up to give them information, any information they needed. So the biggest thing is -- in my mind was the look on their faces. They were still in shock. They were walking around but almost in a daze. It was just -- it must have been horrific when it happened up here.

ROBERTS: Jim, what's the status of the actual gas fire at this point? Our Dan Simon was telling us that PG&E was taking steps to get the gas turned off. The flow of gas may indeed be turned off. Do you know what the status of the actual gas fire is at this point?

RUANE: I believe the major part of the gas fire has subsided, has been turned off. But as I said, they're still very cautious because there's a lot of residual gas in residential lines and they're having to do that piece by piece. So they're being very cautious especially when it's very dark up here at night. So, we'll know a lot more by tomorrow morning.

ROBERTS: So, most of what they're dealing with now are structures that are on fire?

RUANE: Yes. Most of the fires, I believe, are contained. Fifty percent, according to the chief. But we did have some fires in the Crest Mar Canyon (ph), which is just east of the site and Cal Fire helped us put out most of that earlier today with borate and water drops so that wouldn't get out of hand. But I couldn't tell you exactly right now the status of the fires. Your reporter said 50 percent. I believe 50 percent or better.

CHETRY: You know, I know you're not a structural engineer but can you just give us sort of an explainer of how it works in terms of where these gas lines are located underground, you know, how they're set up to ensure that, of course, the energy is provided but that the neighborhoods are safe.

RUANE: Well, I think I would be overstepping my -- the knowledge of my boundaries here if I tried to explain that to you. A lot of these are easements and you're better off talking to PG&E about how that's all set up. This apparently was a very high pressure 24-inch line so it wasn't just a simple residential line into someone's house. But PG&E is much better equipped to answer that question.

CHETRY: And the other thing is we do know that there were some injured who were taken to area hospitals. Do you have any, I guess, more information of where they were? I mean, were these people who evacuated the scene and were injured as they were getting out or do you know if there were any rescues within the homes in the area?

RUANE: No. To the best of my knowledge, no rescues. People just heard this tremendous explosion and fireball. And I think they tried to run. Probably a lot of it I would speculate would be flying glass. There were some burns that I saw coming up out of a neighborhood. But I think the report is 30 to 38 people taken to area hospitals. Some have been released relatively. I haven't heard of any major, major injuries. But like I said, I've been back and forth to different locations since this started and, you know, I'm not right on top of every specific item.

ROBERTS: Just a few minutes ago, we heard from a local resident who said that he had smelled gas in the area for about three weeks and actually reported it to PG&E. you know, as the mayor, did you ever hear any reports of the smell of gas in the area?

RUANE: Haven't heard a word about it? And we had a press conference earlier this evening with the fire chief. A resident brought that up and the fire chief said he didn't know anything about it. So we would be one of the first to hear if, in fact, it was the occurrence but they probably just called PG&E because that's the gas and electric supplier. So I'm not aware of any gas odor that's been occurring up here. I don't know if it occurred or not. CHETRY: PG&E did release a brief statement saying that, you know, if they are indeed responsible for this after an investigation, they'll take full accountability is how they put it. Have there been any conversations between the city leaders like yourself and PG&E?

RUANE: Yes, I have talked to the CEO of PG&E earlier this evening and his main concern was that he could supply any assistance necessary to help our residents through the Red Cross perhaps, any type of assistance that we needed to help us through this tragedy. We really didn't get into the specifics of responsibility. That's a discussion for a later date. My main concern is my citizens right now and make sure that they're safe and taken care of properly. And like I said, we're going to really address that in a very, very hard way tomorrow morning.

ROBERTS: All right. Jim Ruane, he's the mayor of San Bruno. Jim, we know that you have a busy day ahead of you. We'll let you get back to work. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

RUANE: I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

ROBERTS: You bet.

So as he was saying, confirmation that this is a very large gas line. It's a 24-inch feeder line running right through that residential neighborhood. When you look at a satellite photo of the area, you know, you can see typically on a satellite photo if there's a gas pipeline running through an area. It's quite well, you know, discernible from the surrounding territory. But this just seemed to thread right through a residential area.

CHETRY: Right. It looked like a subdivision. I mean, a big tract. They said there was damage to 120 homes. It looks like that would be almost every home in that tract. There were a couple of main roads leading around it. We are trying to build this for you as well with our graphics so we can show it to you. But you're right. I mean, it just looks like where they say that explosion happened at Vermont and Claremont, I mean it's just literally right in the middle of this neighborhood.

ROBERTS: Yes. And you could see the density of the housing in that area as well. Bryan Carmody arrived on the scene of the disaster about 15 minutes after the gas line ruptured. He's had a lot of experience with things like this. He's a freelance photographer who's been working the streets of San Francisco for 16 years. He was also a still photographer when the Oakland Hills fires erupted in the early 1990s. He joins us live from the same location that the mayor was at in San Bruno.

And, Bryan, describe for us what the scene was like when you came upon it, what you saw, what you felt, tremendous amount of heat obviously.

BRYAN CARMODY, FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER: The sound was absolutely amazing. The sound was a really, really roaring, deep, deep, continuous roaring sound. When we pulled up and jumped out of the car, it was really hot. The radiant heat from the actual gas burning itself -- not the homes burning, the actual gas burning was incredible. We couldn't really get that close.

I actually have some very basic firefighting protection gear that I carry with me. I put on my helmet and my goggles just to be able to do what I needed to do. Not to keep myself safe but just to keep the heat out of my eyes. We basically arrived, got about a block away from where this thing was burning and started to take video.

CHETRY: And there you see -- this is video that you shot as well of the -- of the firefighters being able to get a dog out of one of the homes in the area. You also talked about the sheer frustration of those firefighters because the ones nearest to the actual explosion had no water because of the explosion.

CARMODY: Yes. The firefighters did rescue that dog. That was kind of the best thing I saw all day in a -- in a -- the midst of just a horrible day for these people in San Bruno.

The firefighters, I did have several of them come by to me and just kind of make a spontaneous statement about how frustrated they were. They were frustrated because there was nothing that they could do to fight the fire, for several reasons. Number one, because it was just too big and too hot for them to get anywhere near it.

But the other thing was the water. Apparently, the explosion knocked out a water main at this -- at the location, and there was no water in the closest hydrants to the incident. They had to bring water in by laying lines from several blocks away to get to -- to get -- just to get water to do some defensive operations.

ROBERTS: Give -- give us a sense of the size of the inferno that we saw here. We've seen these incredible aerial shots of the crater where the gas pipeline was -- was centered. You know, the explosion blew out the surrounding ground, and I think there was -- there might have been a road running on top of it as well because our Dan Simon -- chunks of concrete as much as three blocks away.

These aerial photographs really do tell the story, but tell us from the -- from the ground, Bryan, how -- how widespread was this fire? How quickly did it spread out from the epicenter?

CARMODY: The actual gas fire was very -- very contained into one small, close area. But what happened is, is the houses just started catching fire and moving. The fire would move from one house to the next because the fire was burning so fast and so big and so intensely. You know, one house would catch on fire, totally -- totally go up, and then the fire would move to the next house.

The -- the gas itself was just kind of a continuous fireball that was just going and going and going. When we were there, the flames were, I would say, at the most 100 feet tall. But it was definitely a sight to see.

CHETRY: All right. And, you know, we did get a little bit more information from San Bruno's mayor about the extent of the injuries. As we said, it's going to take until tomorrow afternoon or perhaps this afternoon before they can get in there.

He did say he thinks the last number was 30 to 38 people taken to local hospitals, some released, and no major injuries. Right now, all we know is that one person is confirmed killed. And, Bryan, you said there were some rumblings among the firefighters as well, if you weren't able to get out when this started and you were trapped there, it -- it certainly doesn't look good.

CARMODY: Definitely does not look good for some of the people that were very close when this thing exploded. But there's no way to know who was home, where they were or anything.

You know, that's -- what I saw was one person being carried out of the area. That's when the fire department actually took my car. They actually asked if they could use my car to evacuate this patient out, and I gave the keys over immediately, obviously, to them.

But I only saw one person that was injured. Local media reports reporting that there are several people in critical condition in different burn units around the Bay Area.

ROBERTS: All right. Bryan Carmody, freelance cameraman, joining us. We saw some of his pictures there at one of the houses on fire. He shot at the corner of Vermont and Claremont, just maybe about a block, block and a half away from the -- the fire itself.

By -- by the way, the Red Cross is helping -- as it does so ably in incidents like this over so many years -- is helping to coordinate shelter and assistance for people who are affected by the fire. Here's the number to call for you if you need some help from the Red Cross. It's 888-443-5722. That's 888-443-5722. It's also 888-4- HELP-BAY. So they've got that set up already.

CHETRY: Yes. And as we heard from the mayor, they were literally at this shopping complex, the Bay Hill Shopping Center, not far away, shell shocked in the aftermath of what happened. So, certainly they're going to need help and long term help.

ROBERTS: Red Cross always does such a great job in incidents like this too.

CHETRY: They do. They do.

And right now we're going to check in with California's lieutenant governor, Abel Maldonado. He is the state's acting governor right now because Governor Schwarzenegger is in China.

Thanks for your time today, too. I imagine you're very busy this morning.

Give us an update on -- on what you're getting out of the latest with this situation.

LT. GOV. ABEL MALDONADO (R), CALIFORNIA: Well, Kiran, I just came up from the bottom of the hill. I went down and I had a close-up view of what in essence looks like -- like a bomb went off. It's -- there's asphalt all over the road, cars are burned on both sides, fireplaces are standing up with no structures next to them.

And I must say that just shocked to know that this is a horrible tragedy that has hit the people of San Bruno, California.

ROBERTS: You know, Governor, we're -- we're used to seeing scenes like this in the -- the hills of Oakland or outside of Sacramento or -- or even in Malibu, but in a densely populated suburban area like this, this is highly unusual.

MALDONADO: I think that's what got me the most, John, as I walked down the -- on the street. I looked and there's these neighborhoods -- there's houses everywhere, and you get to the corner of the street and all of a sudden there's no houses there, just burnt everything, and big, old, huge pipe in the middle of the road.

You can actually see where the planes came in and unloaded the -- the retardant. Those houses are still there. There was quick action from Cal Fire, and everybody here came together immediately.

But I've -- I've never seen anything like this. I would expect something like this where there's big trees and so forth. But it's just a horrible tragedy and I hope we can just come together and move this forward and get to the end and see what happened here.

CHETRY: I'm sure that you, as well as all other state leaders, want to know how it happened. You know, have you gotten any answers from PG&E, even a preliminary assessment of how this might have happened, if for no other reason to ensure that it doesn't happen again someplace else?

MALDONADO: Well, one of the first calls that I got, obviously, were from the folks on the fire, on the frontline that called me immediately and said we've got a fire. We need to react.

The second call was from PG&E. They said, you know what? We believed that it's one of our pipelines. We believe it's a big pipe. And if we're responsible we are going to make everything good. So they were immediately on the forefront. Give them credit for that.

But, you know, we don't know what happened. I don't know what happened. Tomorrow morning we will find out. We'll see more devastations. And I'm sure we'll find, you know, people that have not made it, and it's really, really sad.

ROBERTS: And when -- when you say we're sure we'll find people that have not made it, Governor, we know that there was one person that's reported dead at this point. Is -- is there -- is there a sense that because of the enormity of this explosion, the fact that it occurred just after 6:00 when a lot of people -- I know that schedules have changed and many people don't get home till after 7:00, but a lot of people would have been coming home at about 6:00, that the death toll might go higher?

MALDONADO: Well, I hope not. But I believe that the -- the death toll might increase. We don't know at this time. What I do know is that when I was down there, John and Kiran, I saw a lot of cars in the driveway. Obviously, that tells me that people didn't leave. So that is a -- a great concern.

But we have a lot of fire folks down there right now cleaning up, going after, waiting for the sun to come up and see what -- what happened.

CHETRY: And, speaking of that, you -- you were saying tomorrow, because it's 3:00 A.M. your time there.

MALDONADO: Absolutely.

CHETRY: It's 6:00 in the morning here on the East Coast. Do you think by this afternoon, meaning today, Friday, you will be able to have a better assessment of -- of any loss of life, any other people who didn't make it and also perhaps a cause?

MALDONADO: I think so. Our departments are all working hard. They know that as soon as the sun comes up, we're going to be out there. We're going to bring some dogs. We're going to go through the whole area, look at what -- what happened and try to find folks -- if there's folks in their homes and so forth.

So it's going to be a morning where numbers are going to change all morning. It's going to be sad. It's a horrible tragedy for the people of San Bruno. We just -- we just got to thank the firefighters who've been working so hard to clean this place up.

ROBERTS: OK, Governor, just one more question about the potential for more fatalities in -- in this case. When you got up close to the -- the epicenter there, where the -- the pipeline was and the explosion and fire actually occurred, did you see explosive damage to nearby structures or did it appear to be all fire damage?

MALDONADO: Oh, no, there was obviously fire damage, but a lot of explosive damage. I saw debris everywhere. There's pieces of concrete in the middle of the road, all over the place. It's on top of a car. The car is right next to the pipeline. There's two cars that are just completely burned right next to the pipeline where they just exploded. I see windows broken everywhere.

So, yes, there was this huge explosion, and I'm sure this huge ball of fire that didn't allow firefighters to come in, it was so hot.

ROBERTS: Yes. Just wondering if, you know, people might have died in the initial explosion as opposed to -- you know, if a structure catches fire it's possible to get out, but if it was actually blown down, that -- that could increase the death toll.

Governor Maldonado, thanks so much for being with us this morning. We really appreciate it.

MALDONADO: Thank you very much.

CHETRY: It's going to be a long morning ahead for all of the leaders there --

ROBERTS: Absolutely.

CHETRY: -- and we're going to continual to check in on this.

He just said he's shocked. It's a tragedy, and he never saw anything like it, and that was the sentiment from a lot of people who have seen a lot of fires coming from Northern California.

Well, strong winds are certainly not helping the situation as firefighters work to contain the flames. Let's go to Rob Marciano. He's in the Extreme Weather Center. He's going to give us a sense of what that area is going to be like today as they continue to try to get a handle on this.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, good morning, guys.

As you mentioned, the winds are -- are much more calm right now, which is typically the case. Nothing over 10 miles an hour that we can find anywhere from San Francisco out towards Sacramento. Of course San Francisco and where San Bruno is, which is pretty much right next to the San Francisco Airport, is on a -- you know, it's one of the more narrow spots on the peninsula there that separates the bay from the ocean. And with the coast range in there, you can get some gusty winds, especially in the afternoon.

Yesterday at 6:00, the winds were right at 21 miles an hour out of the west. So all day long -- it was really bad timing, because we had winds out of the west at about 20 to 21 miles an hour for about four hours between 5:00 and 9:00 at night. And once the fog burns off this time of year, you can get gusty winds.

Yesterday was a little bit worse than -- than normal and we'll have some gusty winds later on this afternoon. It shouldn't be as bad as yesterday, but -- and hopefully they'll have things under control more by then. But very bad timing for this thing to -- to happen right at 6:00, pretty much at the peak of the afternoon winds -- guys.

ROBERTS: All right, Rob. Thanks so much. And we'll get the local forecast from you here for folks who are traveling across the country this morning in just a little while. Appreciate it.

CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.

Well, we've gotten a lot of pictures from viewers like the one we're about to show you of the scene in San Bruno after this happened. If you have photos or video from the scene and would like to share them with us, please go to cnn.com/ireport.

ROBERTS: So Terry Jones, the pastor of that tiny church in Gainesville, Florida and his threats to have a Koran burning ceremony on 9/11. Wouldn't he, as he said late last night, or will he, as he's suggesting he still might? We've got the latest on that story, coming up.

It's 26 minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back.

You're looking at pictures of just a devastating scene in San Bruno, California, a couple miles from San Francisco International Airport, a neighbor heard that literally now looks like a war zone, like a bomb went of is how it was just described by the acting governor of the state.

We're continuing to follow this story and we'll bring you more information as soon as we get it this morning.

ROBERTS: All right. And there are new developments this morning out of the state of Florida where one pastor of a church with just a few dozen congregants is virtually holding hostage the entire national discussion about Muslim-American relations this morning.

CHETRY: Yes, and the reverberations are being felt throughout the world.

Reverend Terry Jones, pictured there, had initially yesterday backed off his planned burning of the Islamic holy book tomorrow to commemorate September 11th. Well, now he's saying he's not so sure, that he may have been misled. Everyone, from the pope to Sarah Palin to the prime minister of Israel, is saying that this is a huge mistake if he goes through with it.

John Zarrella has the latest from Gainesville, Florida, this morning.

So, this is a story that's taken a lot of unusual twists and turns. What is the latest in terms of whether this small congregation is going to go through with this?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, you're right. You know, it was just a bizarre series of news conferences and contradictions yesterday. And at the end of it all, all we really know is that plans to burn Korans are at least for the moment on hold.

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ZARRELLA (voice-over): Suddenly and without warning, two men, worlds apart in their beliefs, walked side by side to the microphones. Pastor Terry Jones and Imam Muhammad Musri from here in Florida had a major announcement -- an Islamic learning center to be built near Ground Zero would be moved to a different location. Jones for his part would not burn Korans.

REV. TERRY JONES, PASTOR, DOVE WORLD OUTREACH CENTER: The American people do not want the mosque there and, of course, Muslims do not want us to burn the Koran. The imam has agreed to move the mosque. We have agreed to cancel our event on Saturday. And on Saturday, I will be flying up there to meet with him.

ZARRELLA: Pastor Jones insisted he had a deal with Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf in New York, brokered by the man at his side, Imam Muhammad Musri. But wait a minute -- Musri said he never made a deal. He never even talked directly with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. He talked only with Rauf's wife who agreed only to set up a meeting in New York Saturday.

IMAM MUHAMMAD MUSRI, ISLAMIC SOCIEYT OF CENTRAL FLORIDA: The imam is correct in his statement there is no deal and we are not bartering. But we are trying -- I'm trying to resolve two delicate situations that have, you know, security ramifications around the world.

ZARRELLA (on camera): But by the time you left there and walked out here with Pastor Jones, it went from you saying that we can meet with the imam in New York and then Pastor Jones comes out and says, "We have a deal," and insists there's a deal. He stretched it, changed it?

MUSRI: Stretched it probably.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): For Imam Rauf in New York, all that was transpiring in Gainesville, Florida, seemed to come out of left field. He issued a statement expressing gratitude that Jones had backed off of Koran-burnings, but he added, quote, "I have not spoken to Pastor Jones or Imam Musri. I am surprised by their announcement."

So where does this leave Jones? Well, he says he's surprised too, and he's changed his tune a bit -- going from saying "no Koran- burning" to "it's now on hold."

JONES: We assumed that what the imam told us was, of course, true. Now -- now, we're in somewhat of a state of limbo and we have to re think, of course, our position.

ZARRELLA: Jones says he wants to talk with Imam Rauf sometime today before he decides what to do. At this point, it's fair to say no one knows where, when or if a New York meeting will take place.

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ZARRELLA: And plans for this New York meeting are so uncertain, perhaps unlikely, that when I talked to Imam Musri late yesterday, he told me that he hadn't even yet bought his plane ticket -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. John Zarrella for us with the back story on what took place. It seems like this changes by the minute. Thanks so much.

ROBERTS: By the way, we're scheduled to be speaking with Imam Muhammad Musri. We're supposed to be talking to him right about now. We're just trying to locate him.

He's the director of the Islamic Society of Central Florida. The man who you saw standing next to Reverend Jones in John's piece and that earlier this week, attempted to change his minds about the whole Koran-burning thing. Obviously, there is some confusion as to what was said.

So, we'll try to get it straightened out when Imam Musri appears at our live location, which we're hoping is going to be in the next couple of minutes or so.

CHETRY: And, of course, the story hasn't been convoluted to begin with, now, Donald Trump is throwing himself into the fray about the Islamic controversy of the cultural center being built in lower Manhattan. The majority landowner said "thanks, but no thanks" to an offer that Trump had set out. He said he would offer to one of the aid investors in the property that he would buy the site at 45 Park Place for the price paid plus 25 percent above that, all cash.

The investors' lawyer says it was not even considered, calling it a pathetic attempt to get publicity. Well, it worked. Donald Trump will be on "LARRY KING" tonight. Is it a stunt or is it a serious offer? And could he really end this battle? "LARRY KING LIVE," 9:00 Eastern, Monday.

ROBERTS: What would a "LARRY KING" -- what would a week of "LARRY KING LIVE" be without an appearance by the Donald?

Our continuing live coverage, by the way, of this devastating gas explosion and fire in San Bruno, California, will continue. The lieutenant governor of California is declaring a state of emergency in the San Francisco suburb. What we know at this point: one person dead, dozens are hurt, some critically burned. But there are fears that the death toll could go much higher.

CHETRY: Yes. And we did get an update from the mayor of San Bruno about 20 minutes ago. He said that at his last check, 30 to 38 people were injured -- flying glass injuries as well as burns. We're going to get an update on that as well.

But meantime, they do know that 170 homes have either been destroyed or badly damaged. Emergency officials tell us they expect the numbers will climb higher this morning.

The gas line exploded just after 6:15 p.m. local time. So, it was 9:15 in the evening here on the East Coast. It sent a fireball hundreds of feet into the air. As we said, hot enough to literally blow chunks of asphalt several yards away and melt cars.

Dan Simon is on the ground. He's been at the scene throughout the night and now into the morning.

Give us an update from what you're hearing from emergency officials right now.

SIMON: Well, we're just hearing some surreal things out in the field. We got a report from a firefighter. There's a fire station a couple blocks away from the blast site. And he says that his feet literally lifted off the ground when that explosion happened.

They raced to the scene. Obviously, they were dealing with a major inferno. We're actually at the command center, but we had an opportunity to see things with our own eyes and get very close to what firefighters were dealing with. Let's take a look.

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SIMON: There were early reports that a plane may have crashed into the hillside. Those reports were not true. But you can understand when you get here why some may have been under that impression. When fire crews got here, this neighborhood where we are was just totally engulfed in flames.

You can see right now firefighters, all they can really do is take a defensive stance, try to putt out some of these flames and try to prevent some of the other homes from catching on fire.

Here's another vantage point of some homes that caught fire. You can see behind us just four or five homes totally leveled. Fire crews are not doing anything over there.

A few minutes ago, we heard a very loud explosion. We didn't know what it was. It turned out to be this white station wagon, some kind of car explosion. So, that's another thing that crews out here have to deal with.

We are right next to what we think was ground zero. You can see behind me everything is completely leveled.

To give you an idea just how hot this fire was, I want to show you this. Look at the back of this white Volkswagen -- the heat just melting this taillight. And if you walk to the front, you can see that the explosion caused the concrete to travel a great distance. It's just lying here on the windshield of this car, a little chunk of it.

One the big problems firefighters are dealing with right now is the wind. You can see it on this crime scene tape just kind of blowing around and you can see it with this smoke. That's helping to spread the flames.

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SIMON: Well, no wind here at the moment, but we're told that the fire is still out of control. Right now, they're saying about 50 percent containment but they're still dealing with some heavy flames there. In terms of what happened, what caused this, we know that there was -- there was a natural gas line rupture.

What happened is the real mystery. Was there some construction work going on? Was there just a lot of pressure and that's what caused this explosion?

Hopefully, we'll get some answers as soon as we get daylight. That's what the lieutenant governor was saying as well. As soon as we get some daylight and crews at least have a better handle on things, that they can go in there and try to investigate what caused this explosion -- John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: The fires that are continuing this morning, Dan, do they have anything to do with the gas line? Or is the gas all shut off and these are structures that are on fire?

SIMON: Well, we are told that the gas line has been shut off. And I actually saw a photograph a short time ago someone showed me. There's a piece -- this is a 24-inch gas line and just a piece of it, just sitting there in the street, it was just unbelievable thing to see. But in any event, we're told that the gas line is now shut off. And for that matter, they've turned off all the power in the neighborhood.

So, what we're dealing with are just house fires, residual fires. As we said, wind was a factor. It doesn't appear to be much of a factor at least where I'm standing right now. But, really, that's what they're trying to do, trying to at least get out all these residual fires and try to prevent the fire from spreading any further, John.

ROBERTS: All right. Dan Simon for us this morning in San Bruno, and we'll be getting back to Dan throughout the morning. Of course, first light expected there in a couple of hours or so.

CHETRY: And just to clarify for people, when they're saying 24 inches, they're talking diameter of the pipe.

ROBERTS: The diameter of the pipe. Yes, that is a main line running right through the heart of that residential neighborhood. And because of the fact that there is concrete that's been blown blocks away as Dan Simon was showing us, it would appears that that was running beneath some sort of roadway as opposed to in a buffered right-of-way.

And you look -- and we've got actually a Google Earth image of that area. Take a look here as we put that up on the screen. It will show you, you know, this is all tract housing here and it shows you just how dense that area is with structures.

CHETRY: Yes, when they talk about 120 homes either damaged or destroyed, it looks literally like that tract of subdivision right where you see the arrow Vermont and Claremont Streets, the cross- section there. And as you were saying, if you're talking about a 24- inch diameter pipeline just under the surface, I mean, you can imagine the destruction -- and we're seeing it -- if it were to explode.

ROBERTS: Yes.

Well, the Red Cross is helping to coordinate shelter and assistance for people who are affected by the fire. Their number for folks who need help is 888-443-5722, that's 888-443-5722 or 888-4- HELP-BAY.

CHETRY: Well, if you have pictures or video from the scene and would like to share them with us, go to CNN.com/iReport.

ROBERTS: All right. We'll be back in just a minute.

It's 41 minutes after the hour. You're watching continuing coverage of the San Francisco explosion here on CNN.

We'll be right back.

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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

We're just going to give you a quick update right now on the situation in San Bruno, if we could show some pictures. There's an explosion of a gas line that took place there. And we know that one person was killed in this. An entire neighborhood virtually burned to the ground this morning. Thirty to 38 people or perhaps more injured in this.

And this is before they were able to get in there and do an assessment today. So, many people are simply fleeing the area so there's really not an accurate count yet on how many made it out.

ROBERTS: Yes. And it's going to be some time yet before we know if the death toll goes higher because firefighters have not been able to get close to the area. As well it's very dark because it's still the middle of the night. So, they're thinking at first light, they may be able to start to get their way into the area, at least the outlying area where some of the fires are out to try to determine if anybody else was caught up in that initial explosion and fire.

CHETRY: Yes. And the only good news is that they did say through the course of our show -- we were on a little bit early today because of this -- that they did shut off the gas lines. So, that's one bit of good news in there, getting a handle on the continuing fires.

ROBERTS: Yes. Still plenty of structures on fire this morning.

Lots of other news to tell you about as well at 45 minutes after the hour.

Gay and lesbian advocates praising a federal judge's ruling that the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is unconstitutional. When the case brought by the group Log Cabin Republicans, the judge said, the government failed to show how the act improve military readiness and cohesive units. The government will consider a temporary injunction to prevent the ruling from going into effect immediately.

CHETRY: Iranian officials say that they could release American hiker, Sarah Shourd, as soon as Saturday. Shourd and two men have been held in Iran for more than a year after they were accused of illegally crossing into Iran. The hikers' mothers say that they're innocent. All they're asking is that they all be freed together at the same time.

ROBERTS: And Sarah has been pretty sick for quite a while, too. So, it might be one of the reasons why they're letting her go. New video of the 33 trapped miners in Chile shows they've been communicating, with their loved one. The men were writing letters, putting them into a plastic canister that snaked to the surface. They've been trapped underground for more than a month now. Officials say it looks like the earliest they're going to get out them is around Christmas time.

Some of the bore holes that they've tried to drill down to them may be 300 feet deep, but they're 2300 feet down there. So, it's going to take some time. They actually got to watch a soccer match the other day. They've managed to lower a cable down there, had a little projector on the end of it, and they watched the match.

CHETRY: Anything to keep their spirits up.

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHETRY: You know, their mental health obviously just as important as their physical health as they try to get them out of there.

Meantime, we have some new information as we're minding your business. President Obama is set to name Austan Goolsbee as the new chairman of his council of economic advisers. He's expected to make the announcement today at the White House news conference. Goolsbee is a long-time adviser. He's also the architect of the president's economic message. He'll be replacing Christina Romer who left the post last month.

ROBERTS: We had him on and off a lot during the election. Every other day was an Austan Goolsbee day.

Need a vacation? Who doesn't? But get this, a new study suggests a majority of Americans aren't taking all the vacation days they've earned, Kiran. 64 percent of the workers surveyed had to cancel or postpone a vacation this year. Many cited too much responsibility or stress on the job. Researchers say Americans are workaholics. And with so many people still out of work, those who have jobs seem reluctant to take any time off. You have how many vacation days that you haven't used?

CHETRY: Lots and lots, but I'll do it. Next week, in fact.

Still to come, we're monitoring the latest developments out of San Bruno, California this morning. We're getting new information.

We're going to also be checking in with PG&E. This is the company who owns this gas line, and we're going to find out more about what may have gone wrong.

Rob Marciano also gets an update on what it's going to be like, the conditions for firefighters today. Forty-eight minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Coming up on nine minutes to the top of the hour. We're following breaking news this morning. Flames destroying dozens of homes in a neighborhood in San Bruno, California. Now, to give you an idea where this is, the San Francisco Airport is about 11 miles south of the city of San Francisco. This is about two miles to the west of the airport, along that long peninsula that leads up into San Francisco.

We're continuing to monitor developments this morning. So far, we know that one person has died. There are tens of more that have been injured, but it's going to take some time before they figure out if the death toll can go higher because darkness in the area, still a lot of fires burning. Fire and rescue officials can't get in there just yet.

CHETRY: Yes, it's a little bit before 4:00 a.m. where they are, and right now, we're going to check in with Rob Marciano for the weather headlines. We saw some of the planes out there trying to drop retardant in the area. They also said yesterday, they were frustrated by some of the winds. What's it going to be like for them today?

MARCIANO: Right now, it's calm. That's good news. Light and variable wind, but that's few hours. So, they've had that to deal with, you know, two, three, four, five-mile-an-hour winds, that is about it. Yesterday, at the time of the fire about 6:00, winds were blowing about 21 miles an hour. It started about 4:00 or 5:00, increasing throughout the evening.

So, the timing really couldn't have been worse. And this time of year, when the fog burns off in the afternoon, you will get gusty winds especially through some of the canyons near the coast range, and there are mountains just to the west and south of San Bruno that will accentuate some of that. Speaking of fire, we saw the red flag and warning out with parts of Northern Colorado with the fires still burning just north and west of Boulder.

We expect to see less windy conditions tomorrow, and then heavy rain in association with what's left over of Hermine. I wanted to talk about talk briefly about Igor. This is the satellite picture. Still well out in the Atlantic. It actually has been downgraded to a tropical depression at least for now. We do expect it to re- strengthen, and that's the official forecast from the National Hurricane Center. Keeps a little bit farther down to the south.

Brings it to a hurricane status over the next few days and brings it a little bit closer to the Caribbean as we get closer towards -- beginning to middle part of next week. Of course, we'll be watching these winds carefully throughout the day today. We don't expect them to be as strong as yesterday afternoon, but they will get a little bit gusty as the late day hours roll around. Hopefully, by then, they'll have most of those fires under control -- John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: Good news. All right. Rob, thanks so much.

The on again/off again potentially on again Koran burning that's supposed to maybe kind of, sort of, who knows at this point take place in Gainesville, Florida. Already prompting reaction around the globe. We'll go to Afghanistan coming up right after the break to tell you what's going on there. Stay with us.

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ROBERTS: Six minutes to the top of the hour. In Afghanistan, protests are under way over that Florida church's plan to burn the Koran tomorrow.

CHETRY: Yes, the implications are already out there even though this has not happened yet. There are demonstrators panning out across the capital and beyond. Our Atia Abawi is live from Kabul to tell us more about what's happening. I mean, we can understand how incendiary just a rumor of the Koran being burned is. What's going on there?

ATIA ABAWI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right now, John and Kiran, we're hearing that according to ISAF, 500 Afghans were protesting outside of a NATO base in the northeastern province of Badashan (ph), but according to local Afghan officials, they're saying over 10,000 Afghans were protesting, at least one dead. We're also hearing that sporadic protests had fired up in various parts of the country. Another one outside actually an American combat outpost in the eastern province of Wardak.

No reported injuries there, but as you mentioned, Kiran, this is just a rumor right now that this Koran burning might happen. When and if it actually does happen, once those pictures go out, the devastation that may occur in places like Afghanistan and other Muslim countries around the world is going to be great. When we saw such protests about cartoons about the prophet Muhammad, and now you're seeing the word of God in the eyes of the Muslim people being burned, it's going to cause massive damage.

And right now, even General David Petraeus, the top NATO commander here, worried that it may even cause American deaths.

CHETRY: Oh, we certainly hope that that's not the case. We also certainly hope that it's not too late, despite what this pastor decides what to do. Atia Abawi for us in Kabul. We'll check in with you again throughout the show. Thank you.

ROBERTS: So, as we said, it was on and then it was off as of last night, but there's still kind of a maybe in there. Pastor Jones is saying he might still go ahead and do it, but CNN producer, Rich Philips, gives us this information this morning. Pastor Jones quoted just a few minutes as saying, "As far as I understand, we're flying out probably today from Florida to meet with Imam Feisal in New York City tomorrow, which would be Saturday."

So, if he's in New York, it would appear that there's no Koran burning going to be taking place in Gainesville, which a lot of people say would be a very good thing.

Top stories coming your way right after the break. Stay with us.

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