By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The cause of a fire and subsequent explosion in a semi trailer parked behind a business off Kings Way in north Del Rio last Sunday has not been determined, a fire department official says.
Del Rio Fire Department Chief David Harrison spoke to The 830 Times on Wednesday about the blaze and explosion, which rattled windows and awakened sleepers early in the morning of Sunday, Feb. 25.
A video posted to The 830 Times’ story about the initial incident by a man identified as Steven Sheard, showed the explosion and fire, captured by a security camera outside Sheard’s north Del Rio home.
The video, which is time-stamped 5:47 a.m. Feb. 25, appears to show a fire already burning when the explosion occurs.
The 830 Times asked Harrison about the video footage. He said he had viewed the footage and agreed that the fire was already burning when the explosion happened.
“When the call came from dispatch, it was reported as an explosion and a large fire, and the guys weren’t sure what it was, so they responded as if it was a structure fire, and all four stations responded. Of course, it was a tractor-trailer, a refrigerated-type tractor-trailer, but it had been parked there for a while, and it was being used basically as a storage building,” Harrison said.
Harrison said the trailer was parked behind a business in the 100 block of Kings Way.
The fire chief said the trailer contained a variety of items like a car engine.
“The reason the fire was so big and so hard to put out, it was also full of some type of plastic insulation or something. They (the firefighters) originally thought it was full of tires, the way the fire was burning. It took a lot to put it out. It took a lot of water to cool it off enough for it to go out,” the fire chief said.
Harrison said the firefighters who investigated the blaze are still gathering information about the owner of the trailer, and he did not have definitive information about the owner at the time of the interview.
Harrison said the investigating firefighters estimated the dollar value of the contents of the trailer lost in the fire at $5,000, but Harrison qualified the estimate by saying the firefighters “aren’t insurance adjusters.”
He said there was no danger to structures or residences in the area where the fire occurred. Harrison noted the trailer was parked at some distance from the nearest residences on King Charles Place.
Harrison said firefighters found a propane cylinder that may have caused the explosion.
“They found a ruptured propane cylinder of the type that would be used on a forklift. It was ruptured, and they don’t normally do that. They have a pop-off that should come off, and you’ll see 20 or 30 feet of flame coming out of it, but it’s releasing the product so it’s not building up pressure. That’s not to say they don’t explode, they do and obviously that’s probably what caused the fireball (in the posted video),” Harrison said.
“In the video, you can see the smoke plume and a glow, and then you saw the little fireball come up,” Harrison said.
He said the cause of the blaze that preceded the explosion is undetermined.
“Fires like that, there’s so much burned and so much extinguishment that it’s really hard to pinpoint,” Harrison said.
He said the report on the fire reads that the cause of the blaze is “undetermined after investigation.”
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
