Explosions! A column of black smoke!
By Rossland Telegraph
Sirens and loud explosions disturbed the peace on Columbia Avenue in Rossland late Monday afternoon.
A black pick-up truck had pulled to a stop in the 1500 block, emitting some smoke; the male driver leaped out of the vehicle, and it burst into flames. A resident of upper Columbia Avenue ran down with a hand-held fire extinguisher and emptied it on the fire, and this action probably slowed it somewhat; but then the fire trucks arrived with professionals to deal with the flames. Two or three loud, booming explosions were followed by a towering column of dense black smoke before the firefighters could douse the burning pick-up.
The burnt truck had originally stopped beside a Jeep, and an owner of the Jeep immediately ran out of her house and backed it up safely out of range of the fire raging from the black truck.
An eye-witness reported that a man also ran out of the immediately adjacent house with a large knife in hand, but it is not clear what he intended to do with the knife.
The truck was gutted.
