Gold Bar mobile home destroyed in explosion

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, July 26, 2011

GOLD BAR — A fiery explosion Monday in Gold Bar left one woman with a cut lip, destroyed a mobile home and sent debris flying.

Reports of an explosion started just after noon Monday, said Brandon Vargas, an acting battalion chief for Snohomish County Fire

District 26 in Gold Bar. Firefighters were en route when flames broke out.

“When we got there, the one trailer was pretty much gone,” he said. “There was just debris everywhere.”

The fire was in Gold Bar Nature Trails, a private camping park off May Creek Road, east of town. The trailer was a 1970s-era single-wide.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, said Bruce Pulver, an investigator with the Snohomish County Fire Marshal’s Office. At this point, it doesn’t appear to be suspicious. It may be tied to a propane leak, an electrical problem or something along those lines.

The propane tank that was hooked up to the house was intact, Vargas said.

The fire damaged a small shed on the property, but crews extinguished it before it burned the shed’s contents, Vargas said.

Neighbors’ property was, however, hit by shrapnel, he said.

The explosion embedded pieces of the trailer’s siding and roofing into tree branches as far as 30 feet off the ground, Vargas said.

“It was quite impressive,” he said.

Investigators found debris thrown at least 60 feet away, Pulver said.

No one was seriously injured, but the blast knocked a woman down and cut her lip, he said.

The woman was treated by medics at the scene, Vargas said.

Damage from the fire was estimated at $40,000. Crews from Sultan also responded.

Police on Monday were trying to contact the trailer’s owners in Mukilteo, Pulver said.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.