One man was burnt by a large fireball after an explosion at a liquid gas business in Mt Maunganui this afternoon.
The man was about to jump into his truck when the explosion happened at Liquid Gas Services on Newton St around 2pm, Mt Maunganui Fire Service station officer Lindsay Nicol said.
LPG gas escaped while being used to purge new gas cylinders of air outside the building. The gas cloud exploded when it reached a gas heater inside the building about five metres away.
The injured man had been put into a cool shower by staff, and firefighters looked after him until the ambulance arrived.
He suffered burns to his hands, forearms and face, although the rest of his body which had been covered was fine, Mr Nicol said.
The person purging the cylinder was unharmed, as the wind appeared to have blown the gas away.
"The guy who was burned was obviously unlucky, but they were lucky in that there wasn't more serious injuries and more people injured, and a subsequent fire," Mr Nicol said.
The explosion blew out windows, but another person inside near the heater was unharmed.
"The fire would actually have only lasted a couple of seconds -- it would have been an extremely hot fireball which exploded."
The only evidence of fire was melted plastic and some burnt paper.
