A Carson company that owns the compressed natural gas-powered big rig that exploded in Wilmington, injuring nine Los Angeles firefighters, spoke out Friday for the first time, saying company officials were "currently investigating the incident."
"HLT is aware of the explosion of one of our compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks in Wilmington, California on the morning of Thursday, February 15,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. “We are grateful to the firefighters who responded to the scene, and our thoughts are with those who were injured in the course of ensuring others’ safety."
As local and federal investigations paid a visit to the firm’s office Friday morning, the company added it was also working with authorities to determine the cause of the explosion.
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The company also confirmed the driver of the big rig was unharmed in the blast.
The I-Team learned the firm's parent company TTSI appears to have clean safety records with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration although it’s not clear whether the firm’s subsidiaries had any prior incidents similar to what happened in Wilmington.
TTSI previously put out a press release, saying it replaced 15 of its diesel trucks with compressed natural gas vehicles in 2021. Many of them look much like the one that blew up in Wilmington.
The Thursday morning explosion left two LA firefighters injured. One of the firefighters, a 37-year-old, 9-year LAFD veteran, was airlifted to a burn center for specialty care, according to LAFD Capt. Erik Scott. The other hospitalized firefighter was in critical, but stable condition Friday morning.
The other seven were released from the hospital. Their injuries include burns, injuries from flying shrapnel and what the LAFD described as effects to their hearing.
They were putting out the compressed natural gas truck fire Thursday morning in the 1100 block of North Alameda Street when one of the vehicle's two 100-gallon CNG fuel tanks pressurized to at least 3,000 psi exploded.
Some people who work near the explosion site said, after the blast rocked the Wilmington neighborhood, they were concerned about their building’s structural stability.
“I don’t know who’s responsible. The driver? The company?” Genaro Medica, who works at Wilmington Recycle, asked.
A neighbor also said she became injured as she was thrown into the air and slammed to the ground when the truck exploded.
“It flew me about 3 feet,” Tanya Gaylos claimed. “There [were] a lot of people that were hurt.”
