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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Twenty-five years ago this week, a hidden fault under Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley neighborhoods unleashed a magnitude 6.7 earthquake that killed dozens, shattered buildings, broke water mains and ignited fires.
The ground shook horizontally and vertically for up to 10 seconds, most strongly in an area 30 miles (48 kilometers) in diameter around the city's Northridge neighborhood, according to the public-private partnership Earthquake Country Alliance. It was felt as far away as Las Vegas.
Among vivid images from the Jan. 17, 1994, quake were scenes of vehicles stranded high on an elevated section of freeway with the road fallen away in front and behind, and the wrecked motorcycle of a police officer who plunged to his death off the end of a broken overpass while rushing to work in the early morning darkness.
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