Food truck explosion in Whittier injures five people; authorities are investigating

Five people were injured, two critically, in an explosion Saturday morning at a food truck in a popular dining and shopping area of Whittier, according to authorities.

Eleven units of firefighters and paramedics were dispatched at 9:17 a.m. to the 6700 block of Greenleaf Avenue, said Martin Rangel, supervising fire dispatcher at the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

“There was an explosion of some kind” but no fire when first responders arrived at the scene at 9:21, he said.

Whittier Police Department is investigating the circumstances around the incident and were expected to report the case to Cal/OSHA.

Rangel said it was most likely a propane tank explosion. Whittier police officials weren’t immediately available for comment.

The National Fire Protection Assn. says that 68% of food truck fires are related to leaks or structural failures in propane tanks. As the food truck business has grown over the years, there have been periodic occurrences of propane-related accidents, the most notorious in the summer of 2014 when an explosion and ensuing fire of a food truck in Philadelphia claimed the lives of the truck owner and her daughter and injured 11 others.

Food truck explosions and fires are rare in California, which has some of the strictest regulations governing the safety of mobile food operations, according to experts.

More than 2,700 food trucks and trailers operate in Los Angeles County, said Matt Geller, head of the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Assn. Geller wasn’t aware of the Whittier food truck explosion. He said it didn’t appear that the truck operator was a member of his association.

“It’s a pretty rare event,” Geller said, noting that the last food truck fire that he could recall was 10 years ago in Venice. At the same time, he said, “we have a lot of old trucks.”

The five who were injured Saturday in Whittier were apparently crew members of the food truck, said Rangel. They were treated on site and transported to a hospital, with two having suffered critical injuries, two with moderate injuries and one with a minor injury, Rangel said.

He didn’t have details of the food business or the owner of the truck, but some working in neighboring shops said it was related to a coffee business where the truck was parked, in the part of the town known as Uptown Whittier.

Video images showed a small section of Greenleaf Avenue was cordoned off Saturday, but by midday, the street was clear, said people in nearby businesses.