Explosion rocks Greenbush
Black clouds of billowing smoke were the aftermath of an explosion at Jon’s Auto Salvage located on the north end of Greenbush on Friday afternoon, April 26. (photo by Rollin Bergman)
Last Friday afternoon, April 26, an explosion occurred at Jon’s Auto Salvage that could be heard clear across town causing many people to wonder what had taken place.
Following a call for assistance the Greenbush Fire department rushed to the scene, arriving at 4:40 p.m.
“The fire was under control in about 40 minutes,” Fire Chief Randy Jenson said. “The Badger Fire department came in with tankers – about 25,000 to 30,000 gallons of water were sprayed on the fire. It was just to clean up after that.”
After investigating the scene on Saturday, State Fire Marshal Kevin Malie of Bemidji came to the conclusion that there was a liquid propane cylinder in a pile of scrap metal. The tank was ruptured and consequently, static electricity set it off.
Jenson explained, “Heat from a fire can cause one pound of liquid propane to convert to a vapor and it expands 700 times. We don’t know how large the vapor release was.”
He added, “Everything went great, the guys were great … (it was) good that no one got hurt or killed.”
