Fiery Chemical Explosion Kills Driver of Tank Truck

A truck driver unloading a highly flammable chemical into an underground tank was killed Friday afternoon in an explosion that rattled an unincorporated industrial area near Whittier.

The victim was identified as Al Haughn, 40, of Fontana, who was a driver for Calsol Inc. of Pomona.

Fire officials said Haughn was transferring 1,000 gallons of toluene, a solvent used as a paint thinner, into a tank at Compliant Spray Painting Inc., 12251 E. Coast Drive, when the chemical exploded and burst into flame.

The force of the blast swept another man from the back of a flatbed truck parked next to the tanker, but authorities said Louis Durazo, 22, of Glendora escaped injury. Durazo was helping Haughn in the unloading operation.

The county Fire Department dispatched about 40 firefighters in 10 units when the incident was reported at 12:30 p.m. Inspector Tony Duran said the fire was controlled in about 25 minutes.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately known, and arson investigators were called to the scene.

“For some reason there was a spill and it ignited and it engulfed them,” said Los Angeles County Battalion Chief Bill Beinbrech.

Officials from Cal/OSHA, the district attorney’s office, the health department and the coroner’s office were also called to the scene to investigate.

When workers at about 10 other firms on the short, dead-end street heard the blast, they rushed outside, some with fire extinguishers.

“I felt like I wanted to run in there and help,” said Yolanda Guerrero, who works at Mojak Manufacturing Co. across the street. “Hearing that guy scream and you have a fire extinguisher, you think, ‘Whose life should you save--his or mine.’ All I know is that scream is always going to be with me.”

Oscar Navas, manager of shipping and receiving at a nearby firm, said the explosion sounded like a bomb and “it felt like an earthquake.”

“The impact was very big. Then, we saw smoke and very high flames. This whole area filled with smoke,” he said.

Dennis Matthews, who was dropping his girlfriend off from lunch at a nearby building, said he heard an explosion, saw the flames shooting up and then heard “four or five more” blasts.

“The smoke was really black, and it started to go up in the sky a couple hundred feet or so,” he said.

The flames scorched two cars parked in the lot of the spray painting firm where Haughn had backed his tanker. The explosion damaged the tanker truck and a flatbed truck parked nearby.

Times staff writer John Kendall contributed to this story.