Report: Code violations and ‘negligence’ likely factors in North Idaho gas station explosion that killed 2

The cause of an explosion that killed two people at a remote north-central Idaho gas station nearly two years ago was determined to be accidental, but fire investigators found numerous code violations, poor conditions and “gross negligence” may have contributed to the tragedy.

An Idaho State Fire Marshal’s Office investigative report that The Spokesman-Review obtained Monday through a public records request concluded the Sept. 11, 2024 fire and subsequent explosion at the gas station off 36753 State Highway 11, some 70 miles east of Lewiston, likely started from gasoline vapors entering the convenience store. The vapors ignited on or near an oil-burning furnace without a face cover, which exposed the hot surface’s combustion chamber to the atmosphere.

Fire investigators developed a hypothesis in the report that the building was not in compliance with the building codes at the time it was constructed, which allowed gas vapors to migrate into the convenience store and ignite.

The building is owned and operated by Atkinson Distributing, a company based out of Orofino and Kamiah.

Prior to the explosion, Google photos show the gas station in apparent deterioration already, the report shows. The pumps at the gas station were oxidizing, and a coffee can had been collecting fuel dripping from the pump nozzles. A jerry-rigged door that should have been airtight was allowing vapors inside, according to the report.

The employees received no training about what to do in case of a spill, one told investigators during an interview. The report also states documents from Atkinson Distributing never direct an employee to call 911 in case of a spill or to report the spill to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, “giving an employee latitude to do whatever they want to do.”

The gas tanks, found some 100 yards away in a neighbor’s yard after the explosion, were underground tanks and never approved to have been used above ground. In fact, no industry standard would have made the tanks compliant, the report states.

Customers Brandon Luther Cook, 53, and Wesley James Lineberry, 62, were killed by blunt force trauma caused by the explosion. They were found in the rubble.

Donny Billeter, the 59-year-old fuel delivery truck driver at the time, was injured with severe burns and airlifted to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center. Gas station employee Roxann Hubbs, 62, at the time of the explosion, was also injured and airlifted to an intensive care unit at the same hospital.

Days after the explosion, Hubbs recounted the explosion to investigators while intubated.

She had been visiting with Cook and Lineberry when Billeter pulled up to replenish the station’s unleaded fuel stash at around 2:45 p.m. The pumps don’t really work when they have less than 500 gallons of fuel in them, she said. Sometimes the meters on the tanks get stuck, and she would have to climb a ladder to them and “wonk on” them, or bang on them, to get an accurate reading. She also acknowledged the pumps were deteriorating, so much so that the company’s owner would use makeshift parts for them because manufacturers no longer made them.

“You saw those pumps,” Hubbs told investigators. “They are as old as Methuselah,” she added, referring to the biblical figure said to have lived for 969 years.

According to the report, fuel levels in the unleaded tank dropped to 222 gallons a day before, causing the dispensing pump to become inoperable. The headquarters in Orofino then turned them off.

When a woman couldn’t get a pump to work, Hubbs called company headquarters in Orofino to turn them back on. At the same time, Billeter began filling the gas tank, located to the side of the convenience store.

Billeter told investigators that “they won’t let outside people go up there and deliver” gas to the station, and that it’s “dangerous when you’re unloading gas” because the gas “moves with the wind.” If there is anything close to the tank that would ignite it, he told investigators in the report, it would go right into the tank.

According to the report, Billeter was unloading gas and moving to a different tank, so he shut the valve off. Hubbs said Billeter warned the group, alarmed, that the tank was suddenly overflowing. There were no fill-stops or overflow alarms on the fuel tanks to prevent this, the report states. The strong smell of gas prompted Hubbs to run inside the store.

“I went in the building and I turned around and all I saw was the blue flames just like you’re – like these gowns started following me,” she said. A blue flame, like in this instance, occurs when there is a high concentration of gas in the air. The temperature also dropped 40 degrees from the previous day, causing gas vapors to fall towards the ground and migrate into gaps inside the building, the report states.

Hubbs ran from the blue, escalating flame through to the back of the building. She rounded a corner, heard an explosion and fell to the ground.

That same explosion sent Billeter flying across the street. He “heard it coming,” he told investigators, because he could hear the vapor’s noise.

Hubbs climbed out through the debris and escaped the building, shedding her flaming jacket.

“I looked back and the awning was down, and I heard somebody hollering for help and I couldn’t help them,” she said. “And I got out … and Donny was out there, and Donny started screaming at me to get away, get away. It was going to blow.”

Still on fire, she flagged down the truck of someone she knew – a man named Scott – who picked her up. Her hands were so burned she couldn’t open the door on her own, she said.

From Harborview, Billeter told investigators when he looked back towards the station, he saw the convenience store falling in on itself rather than the fuel tanks.

The building began to collapse, which ruptured the “inadequately supported” piping to the fuel tanks. The liquids in the tanks began to flow and catch on fire. The fire spread to other areas of the property, causing more explosions. Witnesses reported hearing around six or seven explosions and watching flames reach as high as 20 feet, the report states.

When fire crews arrived on scene, they initially attempted to save a neighboring house from the fire before switching their focus to the station to prevent additional explosions and spread .

The report says that the property sustained around $4 million in damages, with another $700,000 in content losses. A single-family home, a greenhouse and at least three vehicles were also destroyed.

Investigators concluded at the end of the report that “information was discovered that would support gross negligence which would have caused this fire.”

Gary Cantrell, Atkinson Distributing CEO, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.