Banana Truck Crashes, Destroys Historic Massachusetts Building

A Massachusetts building dating back to 1745 was destroyed on Sunday when a tractor-trailer carrying a full shipment of bananas smashed into a natural gas main and ignited an explosion. The building which housed an active tavern was completely destroyed after catching on fire.

Built in 1745 for grinding grain raised by area farmers the building went up in flames after an 18-wheeler fell went out of control and landed on its side, sliding into the side of the Old Grist Mill Tavern.

Tavern owner Greg Esmay told The Providence Journal newspaper that the trailer “Slid along the ground and took out the gas main and the electrical lines. There was a pretty good explosion, and it started a fire.”

Flames fully engulfed the entire building and it will now need to be demolished completely. Thankfully nobody was inside the building at the time of the explosion.

The truck driver who caused the accident was rushed to a local Providence hospital and the extent of his injuries are not known at this time.

This was not the first time a fire had broken out at the historic location, in 1957 a chimney fire forced the owners to rebuild the bar and restaurant area.

The bar owner is not sure if he will rebuild but says at this time that he was more concerned with his 50 employees finding jobs.

According to one witness who lives just two doors down from the accident the explosion was so loud it sounded like a jet engine had went off.