Montana Vista Firefighters responded to a house fire on the 3800th block of Rene in Montana Vista. They say the blaze was cause by an electrical problem, but fire officials say the greatest danger came from what they found outside. "After we knocked out the bulk of the fire we were still having gas flow into the home even though we shut off the dot standard propane tank out of yard," says Montana Vista Fire Captain James Younger.
The Department of Transportation Standard tanks are one of the only two allowed in the United States. The homeowners had two 100 pound cylinders of butane filled with propane they allegedly smuggled in from Mexico. "The cylinders coming over from Juarez, from Mexico are not designed to handle the propane, they're not designed with safety features involved in them," says Younger. Younger also adds those tanks are illegal but it's not the first time they see it. They're concerned this could be a trend. "Propane is very dangerous it's safer to go with natural gas and obviously it's a lot safer to go with a DOT rated cylinder built in the United States," Younger says
Another danger was the homeowners installation of plastic tubing transferring the fuel into the home. "If that plastic tubing would have melted through, if we would have been 2 minutes later it could have been a real disaster we could have had those propane tanks involved."
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