Kalispell man dies in gas explosion

A violent explosion flattened a home, killing a Kalispell man Thursday afternoon in Columbia Falls.

James Virgil Hilton, 53, a NorthWestern Energy employee, was investigating a gas leak about 20 feet from a house at 1206 Second Ave. W. when it exploded around 3:50 p.m.

“It appears he was struck by the front wall of the house when the house blew,” said Flathead County Sheriff’s Coroner Dave Leib, who named blunt force trauma as the preliminary cause of death.

Hilton was a journeyman serviceman who had worked for almost 15 years for NorthWestern Energy.

Two other Northwestern Energy employees on scene at the time escaped with slight to no injuries.

Homeowners Ted and Myrtle Langton were not home at the time of the blast. It is unknown whether they had any pets inside the residence.

Around 2 p.m. Thursday, three Northwestern Energy employees were dispatched to investigate a gas leak. 

A supervisor had been standing in a hole over the gas line about 200 feet away, and another man had been inside the excavator about 50 feet from the house when the building suddenly blew.

The supervisor was not injured. The excavator operator sustained minor injuries.

Hilton had been standing near the backhoe.

Columbia Falls Fire Department had been standing by, as is routine.

“It was just a loud explosion, obviously. We were very lucky,” said Columbia Falls Fire Chief Rick Hagen.

He said at about 200 feet away, fire crews weren’t in the line of debris.

Initially there were no flames, except for the venting gas line, he said. The structure slowly caught fire, popping off rounds of live ammunition stashed inside, sending flames soaring above the house and giving off a plume of smoke that could be seen from the far end of town and rained ash for a time over crews from the Columbia Falls Badrock and fire departments, Northwestern Energy, Columbia Falls Police, Three Rivers EMS and a crowd of curious residents.

Hagen said the house, car and carport are a total loss. What sparked the explosion remains under investigation.

Rumbles from the blast were heard and felt blocks away, Columbia Falls residents said. Insulation landed in a yard six houses away.

Columbia Falls Police Chief Dave Perry, who lives near Town Pump, said, “I was at my house for a break, and holy cow! I knew right away that this was more than a tire blowing up.”

Jenny Paulus, who lives on Riverwood Drive, said, “I was clipping coupons at the table when the whole house shook and I heard this big kaboom.”

Neighbor Terry Collins said he felt the blast from inside his house and heard a huge “boom” that rattled all the windows of his 1101 Fourth Ave. W. residence.

“I’m a little stressed,” said neighbor Michelle Moore, who lives at 1107 Second Ave. W. “It could’ve been any house.”

She said her husband had been home cooking dinner when the blast occurred. “My husband called and said, ‘Teddy and Myrtle’s house just blew up, and I mean leveled.’”

Neighbors speculate that a telephone pole was being moved when a gas line was nicked, slowly filling the Langton’s basement. Authorities would neither confirm nor deny the claim.

Fire crews were using a backhoe Thursday evening to dig out the smoldering debris in the basement and uncover a car trapped inside a nearby carport. Firefighters were still extinguishing the smoldering wreckage around 6 p.m., and the odor of gas still hung in the air.

Members of the Flathead County Sheriff’s posse planned to secure the scene overnight.