By: Frank Green
An explosion rocked McBride midday Sunday, injuring two people and burning up the trailer in which they lived.
Katrina Avila sustained minor injuries, and an ambulance drove Calvin Blangy to Prince George for further treatment for his burns.
“He’s okay,” said Blangy’s father Lloyd. “Lot better shape than I figured he was.”
Dr. Michael Jackson at McBride’s hospital said neither Avila nor Blangy had life threatening injuries, but that it was “too early to predict” a timeline for recovery.
There are several fundraisers planned – a spaghetti dinner on March 26th and a bake sale fundraiser sometime soon.
When the couple’s trailer exploded, neighbors said they thought a train had derailed or a car had collided with their own homes.
“I come running over and that’s when I saw Calvin and Tina and it looked like they’d been blown out of the trailer. The whole side was gone,” said neighbor Kevin Spencer.
“They had some hair burnt, some minor burns. And Calvin’s feet were burned. He was crawling around; he couldn’t really stand up. They were a little dazed and confused,” he said.
“Calvin wanted me to move his truck – I was glad I was here to do whatever I could.”
Carrie Vandermey and her son Kale were riding their bikes past the trailer it exploded.
“I looked over to see the front of the trailer go up,” Vandermey said. “I pushed [Kale] off his bike just to get him out of the way. It was just instinct.”
Police say the fire appeared to have been a result of a propane leak inside the residence.
Firefighter Christine Monroe took the opportunity to mention another hazard – that this is chimney fire season. She says people like leaving a fire smoldering to chase out the cold, but that coats chimneys with dangerous creosote.
