ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
Thousands of gallons of crude oil spilled over a half-mile area in Los Angeles on Thursday due to a break in an above-ground Plains West Coast pipeline, the city fire department said.
The spill was 10,000 gallons, revised down from initial estimates of 1 million gallons.
A valve malfunctioned causing oil to spew near a Gentleman's Club. Oil was knee-high in some areas and sprayed 20 feet in the air. The cleanup was under way this morning, with crews vacuuming up most of the crude.
"They had a valve that had malfunctioned and they found 20 to 50 foot high oil spewing on the side of a Gentleman's Club. There was a lagoon of oil in the area. Initial reports were quite high as to how much oil had seeped out. The reason why is we were looking at 1/2 mile long, some areas 20 feet, others areas 40 feet, 2 and a half foot deep lagoon of oil," explained Jamie Moore, a public information officer with the Los Angeles Fire Department.
