HAYWARD, Calif. (DR) – A deadly earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area yesterday morning causing a building to partially collapse, killing two and injuring six people.
At 8:12 am PDT the building housing McHenry’s Auto Supply on 2342 Plum Street began to collapse, and within 4 minutes, 21 fire personnel, 12 police, and five American Red Cross workers, arrived at the scene, said the Public Information officer Jennifer Vu of the Hayward Fire Department.
Vu said names of the dead are being withheld until contact with their families has been made, and while three of the six people injured required hospitalization, there are no other serious injuries in Hayward that have been reported.
Hayward firefighters used ropes to stabilize the auto supply shop, and conducted a search of the building to cap a gas line after detecting a gas leak at the site, said Vu.
The earthquake occurred on the Hayward fault, which runs under the Hayward Hills. It was felt by people as far south as Los Angeles and as far north as Redding, said Penny Gertz, a scientist from the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park.
Gertz said the epicenter of the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.4 and was a “strong one.”
This earthquake has especially affected many in the surrounding area including a local resident, who resides directly across from McHenry’s Auto Supply, named Mike Beamer.
"I was eating my breakfast and the room started rolling. I dove under the table just as I heard an explosion outside and a chunk of cement flew through my kitchen window. That's when the screaming started across the street," said Beamer.
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