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Updated: Propane explosion injures man, destroys home

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A gas leak explosion injured a resident and destroyed the house at 113 Porcupine Trail in Coplin Plantation on Monday night. (Photo courtesy of the Eustis Fire Department)

Tuesday, Feb. 7. 5:25 p.m.: This story has been updated to identify the victim of the propane explosion.

COPLIN PLANTATION – A 71-year-old man was injured and his home destroyed after a gas explosion blew him out of the doorway of his home on Monday evening. The two-story structure at 113 Porcupine Trail was demolished by explosion and the subsequent fire.

State Fire Marshal’s Office investigators are at the scene today trying to determine the cause of the explosion.

Eustis Fire Chief Sprague Wise said he got the call at 8:09 p.m. on Monday that an older, two-story camp-style home was on fire following a gas leak explosion.

The homeowner, identified Tuesday evening as Timothy Henderson of Ellsworth, according to Sgt. Kenneth Grimes of the Fire Marshal’s Office, was cooking and went to the back door to light up his tobacco pipe. Just as his lighter produced a flame, propane that had leaked into the house ignited into a massive explosion, propelling Henderson out though the doorway and into a snowbank next to the house.

“He struck his lighter and the next thing he knew he was in the snowbank,” Wise said.

Suffering from burn injuries, Henderson managed to get to his car, drive to a neighbor’s house to call 911 for help. NorthStar ambulance service responded to the neighbor’s house and transported the Henderson to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington.

A team of investigators from the Fire Marshal’s Office arrived first at the hospital to interview Henderson before he was transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland, Wise said.

Eighteen fire fighters from the towns of Eustis, Carrabassett Valley and Rangeley responded to the blaze.

“It was fully engulfed when we arrived. Windows were blown out, glass shards were everywhere,” Wise said. “It was an all-exterior attack, there was nothing more we could do.” The structure’s frame was left standing for fire investigators, but everything else collapsed in the intense heat of the blaze.

Two propane tanks were 60 and 70 percent full and located outside next to the house.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that a chuck of ice fell from the roof and damaged the gas lines or that the homeowner may have left the gas oven, causing the explosion.

Fire fighters left the scene at 12:30 a.m. this morning.

Grimes said a state propane inspector will be at the scene later this week to aid in the investigation.

“We haven’t established a cause yet,” he said.

Eighteen fire fighters from Eustis, Carrabassett Valley and Rangeley responded to a fire cause by a gas leak explosion in Coplin Plantation. (Photo courtesy of the Eustis Fire Department)
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