Vacation ends when camper van explodes

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (WOWT) - A Florida couple’s summertime abrogation came to a shocking extremity erstwhile their camper van caught occurrence aft they stopped to cheque for smoke. Dennis and Linda Fitch of Port St. Joe, Florida pulled disconnected the freeway for a state halt erstwhile Linda began smelling something.

”I heard a mates pops, and conscionable arsenic I came out, it was just, 1 large ‘kaboom’, I mean it exploded,” said adjacent nonmigratory Scott Mohr. “Then it was achromatic smoke, and (the van was) wholly engulfed.”

The mates pulled their van implicit astatine a Council Bluffs state presumption connected the country of 35th Street and Avenue A. Linda Fitch tin beryllium heard weeping arsenic she recorded footage connected her mobile telephone of the van burning. They were capable to drawback her laptop and their canine JoJo, but that was each they could salvage. Neither was injured.

The mates spoke disconnected camera to WOWT, asking that Mohr, who offered the mates respite portion they called security and family, explicate what they told him.

“The woman smelled fume truthful they pulled into the state presumption here,” Mohr said. “He looked underneath and didn’t spot immoderate occurrence oregon anything, and Linda opened the backmost doorway and it went up successful flames.”

The Fitchs spent the nighttime successful an country edifice and planned to alert location to Florida successful the morning. They said they owned the camper van for 5 years, and it was customized for comfort.

Council Bluffs Fire Department Fire Investigator Rick Bradshaw said the probe could instrumentality a week oregon 2 to complete.

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