Officials Investigate Explosion at Calif. Gas Station

--

Nov. 23--An investigation into a gasoline explosion and fire at an east Santa Rosa gas station early Wednesday became increasingly suspicious as a surveillance tape showed three men when only one was located by emergency crews.

The 4 a.m. fire destroyed a van, a fuel island, pump and canopy of the Lawson's Corner Union 76 station, said John Lantz, Central Fire assistant fire chief.

No one was at the burning vehicle when Santa Rosa firefighters arrived. But an ambulance crew found an injured man walking west along Highway 12, not far from the station.

That man, who officials believed was injured in the van fire, suffered burns to his face and body and was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

The fire was being treated initially as a possible crime as fire investigators and sheriff's deputies attempted to sort out what had happened, said Lantz.

It remained suspicious as details developed and the Sheriff's Office was continuing the investigation, he said.

Multiple calls of the fire came in at 3:55 a.m. including from neighbors reporting hearing a loud explosion.

Preliminarily it appeared the vehicle was at the station getting gas when something sparked the fire.

An investigation by late Wednesday morning found that a large container carried in the back of the van was being filled with fuel from the gas pump.

The lack of grounding of the container could have sparked the blast, Lantz said.

"Either static electricity or something like that caused it to ignite," Lantz said.

The explosion was powerful enough to blow the locking mechanism from the back of the van door 55 feet across the parking lot.

The 24-hour station is unmanned during part of the night. Customers still can get fuel, using a credit card.

Investigators had initially thought the man found on the highway could have been the driver, but a video surveillance tape of the front of the station showed three men with the van.

The trio apparently left the scene after the explosion and fire, and two men remained unaccounted for, Lantz said.

Filling containers with fuel requires the container to be grounded, to avoid the chance of static electricity sparking the fuel.

Lantz said containers should be taken out of vehicles or removed from the bed of trucks and put onto the ground, with the gas nozzle making contact with the container.