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Thursday night's devastating gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California, raises a couple of critical questions: exactly how extensive and how safe are the nation's gas lines?

America's natural gas pipeline network consists of roughly 217,000 miles of interstate transmission and 89,000 miles of intrastate transmission, according to a February report from the Congressional Research Service. It also contains approximately 20,000 miles of field and gathering pipelines connecting gas extraction wells to processing plants.

On the whole, according to the report, "releases from pipelines cause few annual fatalities compared to other product transportation modes."

Companies operating natural gas transmission pipelines reported an average of one death per year from 2004 to 2008,the report said.

The Department of Transportation, it noted, reported 63 natural gas transmission pipeline accidents in 2008.

But San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric, the company whose ruptured pipeline led to the San Bruno explosion, was also culpable in at least one other recent deadly incident, documents show.

An explosion and ensuing fire caused by a natural gas leak destroyed a house in December 2008 in Rancho Cordova, California, near Sacramento, according to the National Transportation and Safety Board.

One person died and five other people, including one utility worker and a firefighter, were injured.

PG&E had been notified of the gas leaks at the house where the blast occurred, according to the safety board's accident brief. Crews arrived to address the situation and a foreman had just finished speaking with a resident at the house and was about to investigate further when the explosion happened.

PG&E took responsibility for the blast. Almost a year later, a PG&E spokesman revealed that the company accidentally installed the wrong kind of pipe in 2006 when it fixed a gas leak at Paana's home.

National Transportation and Safety Board documents also showed that in May 2008, the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates utilities, audited PG&E and cited the company for several violations, among them failing to provide "prompt and effective response to a notice of each type of emergency including ... gas detected inside or near a building."

In this most recent incident, several eyewitnesses explained that PG&E allegedly knew about a reported gas leak for a week and did nothing.

San Mateo Assemblyman Jerry Hill, according to reports, "said he was 'outraged' to learn that some residents had complained to PG&E about gas leaks in the neighborhood 'for up to three weeks' before the explosion."

The pipe in question was installed in 1948.

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