One man was sent to hospital Thursday evening, after an RV exploded at the Holiday Hill RV Resort in Penticton, B.C.
The explosion rattled the entire park, and neighbours were the first on scene before paramedics and fire arrived just before 4:00 p.m.
“My trailer shook, and the dust came up the rafters and my dog went a little crazy, so I came out to see what was going on,” said Holiday Hill RV Resort resident Mike Simpson.
“As soon as I heard the bang, I thought, ‘ Oh my.’ And that is my biggest fear living here.”
According to witnesses, the resident was just outside his trailer at the time of the incident and was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The explosion completely destroyed the trailer and scattered debris across the RV lot but no other trailers were damaged.
“The good news is that the resident and his dog are both with us still today,” said Holiday Hills RV Resort Operations Manager Brent Martin.
“The resident is in the hospital and the dog is actually over here with another resident being babysat. The outcome was a lot more positive than it could have been.”
Technical Safety BC as well as an independent fire investigator are now looking into what exactly led to the explosion.
Penticton Fire Department members on scene Friday directed our questions to the Penticton Indian Band, however no one was available for an interview.
“Currently it is an ongoing investigation and clearly something went wrong here and that is why we harp about gas safety to people,” said Technical Safety BC gas safety officer, Mike Patricelli.
“Propane and natural gas are both flammable fuels and, as we say, if they don’t stay in the pipe and they end up getting out there and lighting on fire, the results can be quite catastrophic.”
Although the exact cause is unknown at this time, the explosion is believed to be related to propane use.
According to Martin, this is the first time anything like this has happened at the park and officials say it serves as an important reminder for residents to double-check their systems.
“Never had anything like that and God forbid we have nothing like that again cause look at that… it’s a dangerous situation,” said Martin.
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