A series of explosions resounded through Yucca Valley Friday, Feb. 20, 1970; flames erupted into the sky. It was caused by a rupture in a hose of a delivery truck that was pumping propane into a storage tank at the Unigas Inc. facility at 56667 Twentynine Palms Highway. The fire caused serious injury to two firemen, burns and injury to local firemen and volunteers and excessive damage to buildings and equipment in the east end of town.
One of those injured was Paul Wearing, then 20, who was a firefighter for the California Department of Forestry. Wearing was blown 100 feet by the explosion and suffered from burns on over 60 percent of his body. He survived the explosion but died in the hospital March 9 from pneumonia.
Fifty years later, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is remembering Wearing and others who suffered from the Unigas fire.