Staff photo / Ed Runyan ... This Friday photo shows damage to a food truck parked next to the South Meridian Drive-Thru on Meridian Road in Youngstown, which also sustained exterior damage. A man inside the trailer at the time was badly burned, and the trailer was destroyed in an explosion and fire early Friday.

YOUNGSTOWN — A man said he went for a walk in Mill Creek Park on Friday morning and then stopped at a food truck where he sometimes works in the parking lot of the South Meridian Drive-Thru, 437 S. Meridian Road, for a drink.

He was inside the food truck when it exploded, throwing him from the truck. He said he thinks he was unconscious momentarily and does not know what happened because he had not worked at the food truck for about a month. His brother owns the Drive-Thru.

The explosion happened at 7:46 a.m. Friday.

The victim went to a nearby factory, where he was located by Youngstown police, who saw that the man’s legs were badly burned, but the man’s body from his thighs up did not appear to be burned. The man was conscious and talking to firefighters, who rendered aid until paramedics arrived and took over his care, according to a Youngstown police report.

The report states the man had burns to his legs and hands. He was provided with a burn blanket and oxygen, and he was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. The report stated that the man would probably be transferred to the burn unit at Akron Children’s main campus in Akron. He was believed to have second-degree burns.

An employee of the nearby factory said she heard an explosion that rattled her office, saw the food truck on fire and saw the man running around with no pants on. She went to see if he was OK, and said he appeared to be disoriented. She got him into the lobby of the factory to wait for ambulance personnel.

Two people helped get the rest of the man’s pants off. The pants were a wind-breaker material that mostly disintegrated, the report states.

Youngstown arson investigator Charles Hodge arrived to carry out an investigation as firefighters were finishing up with the trailer.

The crime scene lab arrived to take photos for an investigation.