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Image / 16 believed killed by blast in Sylmar water district tunnel

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Title
16 believed killed by blast in Sylmar water district tunnel
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection
Creator
Messinger, Joe
Date Created and/or Issued
1971
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
A pocket of natural gas exploded early Thursday in the midst of a crew of workers drilling a Metropolitan Water District tunnel 250 feet beneath Sylmar. The explosion turned the 21-foot-high tunnel into an inferno of blazing gases. Sixteen men were believed killed in the blast or in the flames and suffocating smoke that followed, and it was almost 10 hours before the first bodies could be removed. By late Thursday night seven bodies had been removed, and by Friday morning, five other bodies were taken out but the bodies of four other victims remained undiscovered. The explosion was the second in two days at the Metropolitan Water District's San Fernando Tunnel. Both explosions were blamed on methane, the natural gas found in oil fields. Methane is natural gas, the same as that used in gas ranges. In its normal state it is colorless and odorless.
Photograph shows an unidentified man, most likely one of the Metropolitan Water District tunnel workers, who appears to be covered in soot as he stands next to a tall bin. Photograph dated June 24, 1971.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;24 x 20 cm. on sheet 26 x 21 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00095550
Herald Examiner Collection
HE box 9475
CARL0005107098
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/30074
Subject
Explosions--California--Los Angeles
Methane--California--Los Angeles
Water tunnels--California--Los Angeles
Men--California--Los Angeles
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Calif.)
Sylmar (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photographs
Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
Portrait photographs
Time Period
1971-1980

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