Gas station employees say they are lucky to be alive after someone sets their store on fire

Early Thursday morning firefighters attacked a fire at the Valero gas station on Buckner Boulevard.

Dallas Fire investigators say a customer using gas from a gas can started the fire while employees were inside.

“I want to thank God for the second life you know,” employee Roshan Maharjan said. “I want to thank all the fire department that they rescued me. I'm thankful for the life.”

Maharjan was thankful because he said moments after helping people out of the store there was an explosion.

“The moment I stepped out the door the building blew up,” Maharjan said. If it was like two seconds later I would be dead.”

Dallas Fire has not said much about the suspect. But the store manager said they recognized who did this.

“This was one of my employees who got fired a couple of days ago,” store manager Angel Thapa said.

The manager said that's why no one was really alarmed to see him in the store paying for gas.  But the trouble started when he came back in.

“He walked in and he started pouring gas all over the store,” Thapa said.  He brings a gas tank near the cooler where the coolers are at and he would set the whole tank on fire. After that everything started blasting and the whole store caught in fire less than two minutes.”

There was severe damage inside the store that now leaves several people without a job.

“It's really sad,” Thapa said. “At the same time, a lot of my employees lost their job as well. With the job business being super low right now everybody's struggling. They're struggling financially and they're going to college at the same time so, it's going to be really tough for them and for me as well.”

The manager says it could be several months before the store is able to reopen.