PG&E's Deja Vu: Leaky Gas Pipes Burn Cupertino Home

PG&E can't catch a break, and neither can homeowners living near one of the beleaguered company's many natural gas lines, which appear to be dangerous.

The day after federal regulators blasted the utility giant for "a litany of failures" that led to the fatal explosion and fire last year in San Bruno, a home in Cupertino was damaged by what appears to be an explosion caused by leaky natural gas pipes, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Nobody was injured, but the home was badly damaged in the Wednesday blast, which occured around 12:25 p.m. A number of residents and homeowners called police around that time to report a loud noise.

Turns out the noise was an explosionm, which partially engulfed the townhome at 20299 Northwest Square in flames, according to officials. When firefighters from Sunnyvale and Cupertino arrived, they found the garage door lying in the driveway and the side door of the garage off its hinges, lying in the bushes, the newspaper reported.

When PG&E investigators arrived, they found "seven" leaky natural gas pipes, according to the newspaper. These pipes are smaller than the one that exploded in San Bruno last year - two inches in diameter compared to several feet -- but there are 42,000 miles of the distribution pipes running beneath properties in the Bay Area and beyond. A similar explosion killed a man inside his Sacramento-area home three years ago, according to the newspaper.