Crash Into Homes Kills Truck Driver

MESQUITE, Nev. — A tractor-trailer hauling rolls of paper plunged off Interstate 15 early Thursday and exploded in a neighborhood, destroying one home and damaging two others, authorities said.

The truck driver died in the crash, but residents escaped serious injury.

The occupants of the house that was reduced to little more than cinders were away on vacation when the truck careened off the freeway, officials said.

“We were watched over, no doubt about it,” said Mark Tichenor, whose home was damaged by the 4:45 a.m. crash and fire.

Tichenor, 39, said he and his wife awoke to find a 1,025-pound roll of newsprint caving in the wall next to their bed after the trailer plowed into the backyard. Their son Kyle, 15, was hit in the forehead with a brick while he slept.

Another home was singed by the fire, but nobody inside was hurt, Clark County fire spokesman Bob Leinbach said.

The rig was traveling south toward Las Vegas when it plunged down an embankment and through a block wall, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Angie Wolff said.

Leinbach said firefighters found the body of the driver in the charred remains of the truck’s cab. He was not immediately identified.

Wolff said the cause of the crash was being investigated.

Mesquite is about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.