Becky and Tim Hasen were in their shed in American Fork on Monday morning when a train went by igniting grass fires for about a half mile along the tracks.
Coming out to fight the flames with buckets of water and garden hoses until firefighters arrived, they witnessed something straight out of an action movie.
Only blocks away, a propane tank outside of one of the Roberts Manufacturing buildings exploded, sending a 100-foot fireball into the sky.
"I felt the explosion in my house, and I live two blocks away," said Merrill Roberts, co-owner of the buildings.
Frank Pulley, firefighter for American Fork, said although grass fires caused by the sparks of passing trains aren't uncommon, the explosion was.
"It's the first time I've ever seen anything like it," said the 15-year veteran.
American Fork police Officer B.J. Eckles was the first on the scene and directed traffic to safety.
"I knew it was coming when I heard the hiss of gas," Eckles said.
Stan Street, assistant fire chief of the American Fork Fire and Rescue team, said a piece of the propane tank went through a brick wall of a neighboring building but there were no reported injuries.
Street said he has served 34 years and hadn't experienced such an explosion.
"It blew the doors off of their tracks," Street said pointing to the garage doors to the building. "It was just lucky it didn't get inside."
Street said six to seven fires were reported along the railroad tracks, prompting the call for five fire trucks and two brush trucks from American Fork in addition to two units from Utah County. The fires were called in around 10:15 a.m. and took about an hour to put out.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.
Republished with permission of The Daily Herald.
