San Francisco Fire Burned Many Houses news

A large fire burned houses, and roaring through a residential neighborhood in the hills south of San Francisco after a powerful explosion that launched a fireball more than 1,000 feet into the air and sent frightened residents fleeing the Security on Thursday.
A local fire chief said that the explosion of a gas pipe, probably caused the explosion that sent flames fighting in the streets, the burning of possibly more than a dozen houses shortly after 18:00 local time.
"We believe it is a line of high pressure gas is burned," said Fire Chief Dennis Haag San Bruno KPIX-TV.
Pacific Gas and Electric, the electric company serving the San Francisco Bay, had teams in the area investigating the possibility of a natural gas explosion, but had no additional information, said spokesman JD Guidi.
After the initial explosion, the flames reached as high as 60 feet in the air as the fire itself fueled the houses on fire. Airplanes and helicopters flew over dumping water district in an effort to smother the flames.
Witnesses said the fire was preceded by a loud explosion and huge fireball. Described and residents fleeing for safety and belongings hastily from their homes in flames.
Connie Bushman returned home to find his block was on fire. She said she ran home in search of his father 80 years old, but was not found. A firefighter told her that she was gone, but had not been able to keep track.
"I do not know where my father, I do not know where my husband, I do not know where to go," said Bushman.
The victims suffered severe burns began to arrive in San Francisco Bay area hospitals shortly after the explosion. An estimate of the number of wounded was not immediately available. Hospitals reported receiving at least four victims in critical condition but expected more.
Jane Porcelli, 62, said she lives on a hill above where the fire is centered. She said she thought she heard a plane overhead fighting engine. "And then I heard this bang. And everything that moved, except the floor, so I knew that it was an earthquake," said Mrs. Porcelli. "I feel helpless that I can not do anything. I have only to sit and watch."

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Ansel Adams Updates

CNN reported today that the collector found a $ 200 million of long-lost Ansel Adams negatives.Rick Norsigian, of Fresno, Calif., allegedly picked up a box of glass plate negatives for the princely sum of $ 45 in the garage sale.That 10 years ago.

This week, the appraiser Beverly Hills with photography experts considered the work to be really, that world-renowned nature photographer.



Hobbies Rick Norsigian of picking through the piles of unwanted items at garage sales in search of antiques has paid off for Fresno, California, artist.

The two small boxes he bought 10 years ago for $ 45 - negotiated over $ 70 - currently estimated at least $ 200 million, according to art appraiser Beverly Hills.

These 65 boxes of glass negatives created by renowned nature photographer Ansel Adams in the early period of his career. According to experts, the negatives were destroyed in 1937 fire destroyed the darkroom 5000 plates.

"This is really the missing link in the Ansel Adams, history and career," said David W. Streets, appraiser and art dealer, who is hosting the opening pictures in his Beverly Hills, Calif., gallery Tuesday.


The photos were apparently taken between 1919 and early 1930's, long before Adams - who is known as the father of American photography - has become nationally recognized in 1940, said the streets.

"This will show the world the development of his eye, his talent, his art, his gift, but his legacy," said Streets. "And this is the part that we thought had been destroyed in a studio fire."

How do these 6.5 x 8.5 inches glass negatives famous Yosemite landscapes and sights of San Francisco - some of them with fire damage - made its way from the collection of Adams 70 years ago in Southern California garage in 2000, the sale can only guess.

The man who sold them to the garage sale Norsigian told him that he had bought them in the 1940's in stock to save in Los Angeles.

Photography expert Patrick Alt, who helped confirm the authenticity of the negatives, suspected Adams carried them for use in photography class he taught at Pasadena, Calif., in early 1940.

"It is my belief that he brought these negatives with him for training purposes and to show students how not to let their negatives engulfed in flames," Alt said. "I think this clearly explains the range of these negatives, from the earliest photography photographer boat, so images are not as successful for images at the highest level of his work during this period of time."

Alt said that it is impossible to know why Adams would keep them in Pasadena and did not return them.

Plates are individually wrapped in newspaper in the deterioration of Manila envelopes. Legend in each envelope, appears to have been made by Virginia Adams wife of a photographer, according to experts writing Michael Nattenberg and Marcel Matley. They compared them with samples grandson Adams.

Although the majority of negatives will never appear in print, some of them are virtually identical known Adams prints, experts say.

Meteorologist George Wright studied the clouds and snow cover in Norsigian negative concluded that it was made at about the same time, as is well known Adams photo tree Yosemite.

In addition to Yosemite - California, the desert, helped keep Adams - negatives depict California's Caramel Mission, the types of rocky point in Caramel, San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf, a sailing yacht in the sea and images of sand dunes.

"The fact that these places were well known to Adams, and visited him, also supports the proposal that all the images in the collection is likely to have been created Adams," says art critic Robert Muller.

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