1 injured when propane tanks explode behind Las Vegas Strip

By Kailyn Brown, Jesse Granger

Published Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015 | 9:22 a.m.

Updated Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015 | 2:12 p.m.

An employee at a hot-air balloon business west of the Las Vegas Strip was injured this morning when propane tanks he was refueling exploded, Clark County Fire Department and company officials said.

Two vans with utility trailers and two larger propane tanks holding 500 to 1,000 gallons of fuel also caught fire, according to fire department officials.

The blaze, which prompted the evacuation of nearby businesses, was brought under control before 11 a.m. and did not spread to surrounding buildings, officials said.

The explosion was reported about 9:05 a.m. at Vegas Balloon Rides in the 4300 block of Polaris Avenue.

An employee was refueling propane tanks — fire department officials said they were from five to 20 gallons — at the time of the explosion, said Jeff Chatterton, a spokesman for Vegas Balloon Rides.

The 35-year-old man, whose name was not released, was taken to University Medical Center with arm and leg burns, fire department officials said.

He is in good condition and "good spirits," Chatterton said.

The explosion happened at the company's maintenance facility and no passengers were at the site, Chatterton said.

Video posted on Twitter shows the fire and explosion. A column of black smoke could be seen rising from the area.

David Johnson, an employee of Allstate Electric, said he was at a neighboring business to pick up some material when he heard an explosion and saw a fireball.

"After the second explosion, I felt the heat wave hit my face and I was like, 'Let's get out of here,'" he said. "I knew there could be the possibility of shrapnel hitting us, so we bolted it across the street."

Heat from the fire melted a streetlight pole, Johnson said. "It was like something out of a movie," he said.

William Reynolds, 26, said he was on his couch on the 37th floor of a high-rise building nearby when he felt a tremble. He went out to the balcony to see "an intense fire." As he started recording the thick black smoke filling the sky, he witnessed the second explosion.

"Flames were shooting out of the area in a very consistent stream," he said in an email.

The company's balloon rides launch off-site every day at dawn. Chatterton said he didn't know if the tanks being refueled were used in that morning's flight.

Riders typically don't visit its business south of the Rio casino-hotel, across Interstate 15 from the Strip.

Chatterton said he expected the company wouldn't be offering rides for at least a couple days. He added that he wasn't sure if the empty baskets that hold passengers were also engulfed in the fire, but he assumed a few may have been destroyed.

Streets in the area were closed as firefighters battled the blaze, but they were reopened by about noon.

The extent of the damage has not been determined, and the cause of the blast is under investigation, officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.