1 dead in U-Haul truck explosion in Idaho parking lot: Officials
One person is dead after a U-Haul truck appears to have accidentally exploded in a parking lot in Idaho early Saturday, according to officials.
The explosion caused damage within the blast radius including to a Courtyard Marriott and Old Navy, according to the Lewiston Fire Department and City of Lewiston Police Department.
See also the video of the debris and surrounding area.
The explosion was heard and felt several miles away. Perhaps because we use a U-Haul trailer for Boomershoot some people were concerned I or other Boomershoot staff were involved in the explosion. The answer is no. I was in Idaho at the time, but about 30 miles away in the bed of my camping trailer at the time the truck blew up.
If you watch the video, you will see a much better view of the truck. The blast is odd. All the explosions I have seen 10’s of thousands of explosions (most of them were made with the same explosive type and detonated under similar conditions). But none of them left debris at “ground zero”. There might be a crater with dirt falling back in. There might be objects driven into the earth. But there is nothing of relatively low density left at the center of the explosion. There is a clean spot where everything is removed down to the hard dirt. This explosion does not look like that. I suspect this was a gas (as in propane, gasoline vapor, etc.) explosion of some sort. It was not a conventional explosive or even a black powder pressure cooker type of explosion.
Number one likely cause is propane. Too many people don’t take those 20 LB tanks serious enough considering how many Joules of energy a full one can release in an instance.
Absolutely. The gas/explosive diffuses throughout the target rather than staying in one place like a pipe-bomb.
That’s why thermobaric bombs are supposed to be forbidden.
Both us and Russia have them the size of the Hiroshima nuke.
But now we know how the FBI can find “bomb making materials” in almost any place they raid. All they have to do is raid your back-yard barbeque.
Well Joe, you sound mighty defensive.?.?.?
Just read this over at Jack Lawson’s substack, about his Rhodesian war days.
And the making of a propane grenade combo.
” I laughingly said, “Look at this Taffy… I made a Wild Geese grenade. I’m going to throw it in one of the rondavals.” He barely took his eyes off his book, glanced at me and my creation and nonchalantly said… “Okay, just don’t kill yourself, Lawson.”
So, I wandered over to one of the rondavals with half the Commando following me, walked out ahead of them, pulled the pin on the grenade, threw this contraption through a broken window and high-tailed it back to the guys. It was the strangest explosion. First the grenade went off… then whoooosh!! …the propane ignited! As the secondary explosion engulfed the rondaval, flames belched out the door and windows. The blast blew what was left of the windows out and the roof off… glass flying everywhere. It made a hell of a racket… which got everyone’s attention… including Taffy who ran over and said… “What the f%#k are you doing!?” Indignant, I told him… “You just told me I could do it.”
I think someone was trying to frame you, Joe. Too many “close to home” aspects. Lewiston? U-Haul? You got a Breaking Bad doppelganger out there we need to hunt down?
Gas leak or meth lab.