It upsets me know that the gas company does not implement procedures to turn off gas main lines in the event of an earthquake. Like the Northridge quake, fires erupted from open natural gas lines. I saw on the news that the gas company didn’t turn off the main lines because it would take months to relight everyone’s pilot lights. I think it’s mostly because of financial reasons, they would rather have houses burn down and people die due to fires that pay the money to relight everyone’s pilot lights. The made a public announcement shortly after the earthquake to NOT turn gas off unless you smell it. What a joke! That’s like saying don’t replace your tires on your car until they go flat. Well I turned off the gas at my house and neighbor’s houses immediately after the quake; I didn’t want to take the chance of having a fire. I worry that if one house goes up in flames after an earthquake, it could quickly spread to engulf the entire neighborhood (if not the entire city). If a quake large enough hits, the city is instructed to triage and assess damage first (which could take well over an hour), then worry about property damage. In other words, it could take well over an hour before the fire department would start fighting fires (provided that they aren’t needed in treating victims). So given that hour, fires could easily spread to uncontrollable sizes. I believe if automatic natural gas shutoffs were implemented at the gas mains (not the mains at the house), the risk of fires would greatly be reduced. Also automatic shutoffs implemented for flammable materials that are pumped underground throughout the city.