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By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer
April 24 -- A man was killed Sunday afternoon in
a powerful explosion at a Santa Monica mobile home park that
sent an initial fireball nearly 30 feet in the air, according
to police and witnesses.
No one else was injured at the Mountain View Mobile Home
Park on Stewart Street near Olympic Boulevard, but the explosion
damaged nearby manufactured homes, broke glass and left visible
scars on at least one vehicle, a stretch limo, in the tightly
packed community.
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| The explosion at Mountain View Mobile
Home Park ripped the victim's car apart. (Photo courtesy
of the Santa Monica Police Department) |
The victim has been identified as James Wright Marshall,
59, who lived in the park at 1930 Exposition in space #A5.
While the cause of the blast is still under investigation,
Santa Monica Police said a compressed gas canister was leaking
and somehow ignited when Marshall opened the back door of
his PT cruiser, where the containers were reportedly kept.
"One of (the canisters) appears to have leaked a volatile
substance within the passenger compartment of the vehicle,
which exploded when the victim made entry," said Lt.
Alex Padilla, the Police Department spokesperson.
"The preliminary investigation indicates that the explosion
was accidental in nature," he said.
Emergency crews rushed Marshall to UCLA Medical Center with
critical injuries, where he later died.
Residents of Mountain View -- which was built in the 1950s
as a 141-space mobile home park -- said Marshall had lived
there for nearly 25 years.
A joint investigation is now underway by local and County
officials, including the Sheriff's Department's Arson and
Explosives detail, Padilla said.
On Monday morning, officials who work in Hazmat (Hazardous
Materials) could be seen milling about the site, which was
still cordoned off with police tape after the charred car
was removed.
According to neighbors and witnesses, Marshall was seen the
day before the explosion using a welding torch. The type of
gas canister thought to cause the explosion is used for welding.
City Building and Safety Manager Tim McCormick said Monday
that if the victim was welding at the site, he may have been
required to have a home occupation permit. It is not known
if Marshall possessed one.
McCormick also said it is questionable if the City would
have approved that use.
"I think someone doing welding would probably receive
much more scrutiny than someone operating a computer in a
spare bedroom," he said.
Officials said park residents -- including many low-income
families with young children -- were lucky to escape injury.
The resulting fire was extinguished quickly without spreading
to other flammable manufactured homes, they said. |
