3 sent to hospital after van explodes in Bellevue | UPDATE

A stalled van on Kamber Road near 145th Place Southeast exploded and caught fire at approximately 2:30 p.m. sending three people to the hospital with burn injuries. The van began rolling backwards down Kamber and then ignited after an explosion from inside.fighters responded to the incident, which sent two males and a female victim to the hospital with burns. Initial reports indicate the van exploded, then burst into flames. Bellevue Fire Department arson investigators are on scene. Kamber Road remains closed for the investigation.

By Nat Levy • January 19, 2011 6:28 pm
Fire investigators photograph the scene of a vehicle fire in the 1600 block of Kamber Road in Bellevue on Wednesday. Three people in the van were burned and sent to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Fire investigators photograph the scene of a vehicle fire in the 1600 block of Kamber Road in Bellevue on Wednesday. Three people in the van were burned and sent to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

UPDATE The female victim in a van that exploded on Kamber Road at nearly 2:30 p.m. Wednesday told police that she and the two others inside fueled the car from a water bottle as they were driving.

The three Bellevue residents inside the van picked up two gallons of gas from a station in Factoria only a few minutes before the explosion, Bellevue police said.

They didn’t have a gas can, so they kept it in an open bucket. The engine cowling, which is located between the two front seats of the van, had been removed. They used a water bottle to transfer gas from the bucket directly into the carburetor to keep the engine running as they drove east on Kamber Road.

The vehicle stalled right before it reached 145th Place Southeast. When the driver attempted to restart it, it exploded.

Witnesses said the female jumped out the back of the van and fell to the ground on fire. The van rolled over her leg. The two men jumped out of the van and ran towards the Chevron station on the corner. All three were on fire and trying desperately to put it out. One man made it to the Chevron station and tried to douse himself with water.

Original story is below

A stalled van on Kamber Road near 145th Place Southeast exploded and caught fire at approximately 2:17 p.m. sending three people to the hospital with burn injuries.

The Dodge van began rolling backwards down Kamber Road for about 100 feet near a Chevron gas station and then ignited after an explosion from inside.

Investigators were still on scene determining the cause of the fire, but one thing was clear, a combusted car is not a normal occurrence.

“It’s very rare that a car explodes, there’s got to be a reason,” said Bellevue police spokeswoman Officer Carla Iafrate.

When the van ignited, the three occupants jumped out engulfed in flames. All three people inside the van, one woman and two men were taken to Harborview Medical Center with burns. Officials on the scene were unsure of the extent of the injuries. Bellevue Fire Department Lt. Eric Keenan said he heard the injuries could be anywhere from not life threatening to serious. Iafrate estimated that their ages ranged from 30 to 40.

Keenan echoed Iafrate’s view that the explosion was something out of the ordinary. Typically, it is assumed that people can get away from a car fire as they tend to develop slowly, but this was a rapid incident, he said. Responding officers were calling for all available resources.

“The scene was pretty chaotic,” he told reporters. “There was a lot of fire with three victims writhing in pain.”