Los Angeles Oil Pipeline Leak Strands Gentlemen’s Club Patrons

A Plains All-American Pipeline Co. line leaked about 10,000 gallons of crude oil in Glendale, California, damaging a gentlemen’s club and forcing customers to leave their cars in a parking lot.

The 20-inch (51-centimeter) line to a Long Beach storage site was shut down after a valve malfunction caused the knee- high oil spill shortly after midnight, said Los Angeles Fire Captain Jaime Moore, who responded and posted updates to Twitter. Spill size estimates were revised downward from original projections of 1 million gallons and 50,000 gallons.

Ten patrons of the club, called the Gentlemen’s Club, had to leave their vehicles behind, Moore said by phone.

“We have five commercial structures, one being the Gentlemen’s Club, being affected,” he said. “The Gentlemen’s Club actually has significant damage on the side of the building because of oil spraying on it.”

Two people were sent to a hospital after four were evaluated on complaints of strong vapors, including some employees of nearby Baxter Healthcare Corp., he said. The spill was mostly cleaned up by 9 a.m. New York time by an environmental company that responded.

“It was a valve malfunction,” Moore said. “The clean-up will take about 24 hours, but they should be able to get it back up and running soon.”

Brad Leone, a spokesman for Plains, didn’t immediately respond to a phone message asking for comment.