3 critically injured after California quake

Rubble covers the sidewalk in front of the Vintners Collective multi-winery tasting room following an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, California. AP PHOTO/ERIC RISBERG

NAPA, California—A large earthquake caused significant damage and left three critically injured in California’s northern Bay Area early Sunday, igniting fires, sending at least 87 people to a hospital, knocking out power to tens of thousands and sending residents running out of their homes in the darkness.

Two adults and one child have critical injuries and Queen of the Valley hospital has treated 87 people, the city of Napa in California wine country said in a statement Sunday. Most patients have cuts, bumps, bruises, said Vanessa DeGier, spokeswoman for the hospital in Napa. She said the facility has treated a hip fracture and heart attack, but it’s unclear if it was related to the 6.0-magnitude earthquake. The hospital has set up a triage tent and many people are still coming in, DeGier said.

The quake caused six significant fires, including at a mobile home part, Napa Division Fire Chief Darren Drake said. Four mobile homes have been destroyed and two others damaged, the city said. Several other smaller fires have been reported and firefighting efforts have been complicated by broken water mains.

The earthquake struck just before 3:30 a.m. about 6 miles (10 kilometers) southwest of Napa, said Leslie Gordon of the US Geological Survey said. It’s the largest earthquake to shake the Bay Area since the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake in 1989, the USGS said. That earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area on Oct. 17, 1989, during a baseball championship World Series game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, collapsing part of the Bay Bridge roadway and killing more than 60 people, most when an Oakland freeway fell.

Gurbeer Singh cleans up merchandise which fell due to an earthquake at a 7-Eleven store Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in American Canyon, California. AP PHOTO

“There’s collapses, fires,” said Napa Fire Capt. Doug Bridewell, standing in front of large pieces of masonry that broke loose from a turn of the century office building where a fire had just been extinguished. “That’s the worst shaking I’ve ever been in.”

Bridewell, who said he had to climb over fallen furniture in his own home to check on his family before reporting to duty, said he was starting to see more reports of injuries.

Three historic buildings in Napa have been damaged, including the county courthouse, and at least two downtown commercial buildings have been severely damaged. A Red Cross evacuation center has been set up at a high school and crews are assessing damage to homes.

The shaking emptied cabinets in homes and store shelves, set off car alarms and had residents of neighboring Sonoma County running out of their houses and talking about damage inside their homes. Officials say widespread power outages have been reported in the area.

“It was a rolling quake,” said Oakland resident Rich Lieberman. “It started very much like a rolling sensation and just got progressively worse in terms of length. Not so much in terms of shaking, but it did shake. It felt like a side-to-side kind of rolling sensation. Nothing violent but extremely lengthy and extremely active.”

The USGS said the depth of the earthquake was just less than seven miles (11 kilometers), and numerous small aftershocks have occurred in the Napa wine country.

“A quake of that size in a populated area is of course widely felt throughout that region,” said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado. “The 6.0 is a sizeable quake for this area. It’s a shallow quake. It’s about 6 miles deep. We received hundreds of reports on our website from people that felt it in the surrounding area.”

In Napa, city spokesman Barry Martin said there has been significant damage. Store windows were broken and water mains broke in several locations, one of which left at least one street flooded. Gas breaks have also been reported in several areas. Power outages left streetlights dark.

Numerous emergency vehicles were on the roads in Napa and Sonoma counties.–Ellen Knickmeyer with Tom Verdin in Sacramento