FORT BRAGG MAN INJURED IN HOUSE EXPLOSIONCARETAKER OF CLEONE RENTAL BURNED BY BLAST BELIEVED CAUSED BY PROPANE LEAK

A Fort Bragg man was seriously injured Monday in an explosion that ripped a

house from its foundation, threw a post though a neighbor's roof and shattered

windows in structures 1,000 feet away.

''That force had to be incredible,'' said Fort Bragg Fire Department Chief

Steve Orsi. ''It's surprising he's still alive.''

The blast destroyed an unoccupied vacation rental in Cleone, a few miles

north of Fort Bragg and adjacent to MacKerricher State Park. It's believed to

have been caused by a propane leak, Orsi said.

Officials on Tuesday did not have the full name of the injured man, a

caretaker for the Mill Creek Drive house.

The vacation residence is owned by Mary Lou Daw of Aptos. She could not be

reached Tuesday.

The man was flown to an undisclosed hospital with burns on 20 percent to 30

percent of his body, officials said.

He had gone to the house on Mill Creek Road just after 9 a.m. to

investigate a neighbor's report of a propane leak, Orsi said.

After smelling propane, the neighbor investigated and found that the

propane tank had gone from 60 percent full to 30 percent full over the

weekend, Orsi said.

''That's a lot of propane,'' he said.

The neighbor phoned the caretaker with the information.

When the caretaker arrived and opened the door, the concrete block house

exploded, knocking some of its walls off the foundation and setting it ablaze.

Orsi said it's not known what triggered the explosion, but it could have

been something as innocuous as flipping a light switch. State fire officials

are investigating the cause of the fire, he said.

The force of the explosion knocked out windows in at least seven

structures, including the Purple Rose restaurant, and threw plywood into tree

tops, Orsi said.

It also tossed a beam through a neighbor's roof, crushing a refrigerator,

he said.

That neighboring home sustained significant damage, but the resident

suffered only minor cuts, Orsi said.

''I can honestly say I have never seen anything like that,'' he said. ''How

lucky we are not to have bodies everywhere.''

People several miles away reported sensing the explosion. ''It was just

like a bomb going off,'' said Haig Vartanian, who lives about a half mile

away.

Roger Larson, owner of Cleone Grocery, located on Highway 1 about two

blocks from the blast, said it felt as if a car had slammed into the side of

his store. He ran to see what happened.

''This fellow was lying on the road,'' he said. He said the man, who he

knew only as Jay, got up and walked to the ambulance when it arrived.

''The whole place was burning down,'' Larson said. ''It was quite

amazing.''