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.