By Victoria Colliver
San Francisco Chronicle
SAN BRUNO, Calif. — When Santiago and Irma Vides walked back into their home Sunday with their family for the first time since Thursday’s devastating natural gas pipeline explosion, the home seemed eerily preserved, down to the partially cooked chicken on the patio grill.
But just a few houses down on Glenview Drive, it looked as if a bomb had been dropped, completely destroying everything in its immediate wake. Even though their home was unchanged, the Videses knew their neighborhood would never be the same.
“I feel bad being lucky because my neighbors are devastated by their loss. And their loss is my loss,” said Santiago Vides, 45, a cameraman for Univision, who lives in the home with his wife, two children, a family friend and her 8-month-old daughter.
The lucky ones were the 293 households that were tagged green, cleared Sunday to return to their homes and stay.
Police, fire, Pacific Gas & Electric and Red Cross officials were among those escorting residents back to their homes in small groups so they could assess any damage, make sure utilities were functioning, throw out rotten food and adjust to life in a neighborhood that looked like a war zone.
Officials also escorted people to 48 red-tagged houses, those deemed structurally unsound, and nine homes that were tagged yellow, meaning that their safety is unclear but people could get what they needed and leave.
The blast destroyed 37 homes and killed four people, and another four are missing. Investigators were still combing through the area Sunday for clues as to what happened and for remains. It was unclear when residents near the epicenter would be allowed back.
Like an ‘atomic bomb’
The Vides family was among the first group allowed back, which was reserved for those whose homes survived closest to the blast.
On Thursday evening, the Vides family had a full house with the exception of Santiago, who was still working.
After the explosion, which Irma Vides described as an “atomic bomb,” she managed to get the family up the hill to safety, return to move three vehicles, including a neighbor’s car, and help a burn victim away from the scene.
She said her family’s home in San Francisco was destroyed in a natural gas blast in the early 1980s, so she immediately suspected a gas explosion: “I knew instantly it was the same thing that happened in the past.”
But when the mother of two, who works as a UCSF hospital assistant, returned to the site Sunday, she was overcome with emotion seeing the destruction by daylight and the homes of her neighbors reduced to ash. She said she wasn’t sure if she wanted to sleep in her home Sunday night.
A bit of relief
On an adjacent street, Walter and Cherry McCaffrey and their three children returned to their Estates Drive home thankful to find everything intact and their daughter’s hamster still alive. But the family will be reminded of the disaster zone every time they step onto the deck, which overlooks the center of the blast.
“It’s like you’re relieved, but you’re numb,” said Cherry McCaffrey, 36. “You just can’t believe this happened.”
McCaffrey and her children weren’t home at the time of the blast, but her husband, a 40-year-old guardsman in a search-and-rescue unit, managed to record footage of the flames roaring overhead on his iPhone as he looked for the family dog, Coco, before fleeing.
A neighbor on the other side of the courtyard, Michael Sah, also managed to shoot photos of the blast before evacuating. He said he thought the explosion might have been a plane crash and wanted to record the disaster.
“We pray for the families who lost their homes. It could have been us instead of them,” said Sah, 62, as his sister-in-law hauled out bags of rotting food from the refrigerator and freezer.
His neighbors, Roslyn Young and Dave Johnston, weren’t at home when the explosion occurred and were devastated when they weren’t allowed into the neighborhood Thursday evening to retrieve their two dogs, 13-year-old Chance and 4-year-old Suki.
Animal Control officials made sure the animals had food and water, but Sunday was the first day the couple could return to see their dogs. They were especially concerned about Chance, who was unable to receive his kidney and heart medications.
“He was just sleeping in his favorite spot out back,” said Johnston, 62, of the elder dog who was seemingly unfazed by the experience.
Copyright 2010 San Francisco Chronicle