A vehicle explosion this morning left one person dead above Dillon Valley.
Summit County Sheriff’s Office received multiple reports of an explosion around 7 a.m, followed by smoke and flame at the Straight Creek Trailhead.
Authorities arrived to find one vehicle engulfed in flames. Inside was the body of an unidentified man. The fire was extinguished before it could spread. New-fallen snow also protected the nearby forest and the Dillon water treatment plant, which is several hundred yards from the trailhead.
Cause of the explosion remains under investigation. The victim’s name is pending identification through the coroner’s office. Authorities believe this was an isolated incident with no lingering threat outside of the scene.
“Anytime there is an explosion and a tragic death, there will be a significant investigation,” Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons said in a press release. “We have brought together a team of experts to determine exactly what happened. What we know right now is that a person has died, and our thoughts are with their loved ones as we work to find out exactly what happened.”
Among those experts is the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, along with state and local authorities.
Straight Creek Trailhead at the end of County Road 51 remains closed today. It will not reopen until the investigation concludes, which might not be until next week.