Cheery Oil tank explosion
The Cheery Oil tank explosion is the event that completes the Trashcan Man's descent into madness and sets him on a westward path toward Randall Flagg. After the superflu has emptied his hometown, the Trashcan Man, driven by voices and a lifelong compulsion to burn, climbs the spiral stairs of the Cheery Oil Company's #1 storage tank, carrying a five-gallon can of gasoline and a toolkit. He uses his intuitive grasp of machinery to open the outflow pipe, then lights a match and drops it into a pool of spilled gasoline. The resulting explosion—a deafening KA-WHAP—rips through the tank, followed by a chain of secondary blasts that destroy the entire facility and ignite a firestorm that threatens to consume Powtanville and spread south toward Terre Haute. The Trashcan Man escapes by leaping from the tank, breaking his wrist, and running through the fallout zone as burning metal rains around him. This act of pyromania, born from a lifetime of abuse and institutionalization, severs his last ties to his former identity and propels him into the service of the dark man, who has been calling him through dreams. The explosion is not merely an act of destruction but a ritual of rebirth, transforming the Trashcan Man into a willing instrument of chaos, a "clot looking for a place to happen" who will later seek out weapons of mass destruction for Flagg's army.
Causes and Background
The Trashcan Man's history of fire-setting and mental illness directly precipitates the Cheery Oil explosion. From childhood, he has been known as a firebug, torching trashcans and mailboxes, and later burning down the Methodist Church in Powtanville. After years in reform school and prison, where he received electroshock treatments, he returns to find his hometown empty due to the superflu. The voices of his tormentors—Carley Yates and others—still haunt him, driving him to seek the ultimate fire. The Cheery Oil tanks, visible on the horizon, have long been an object of his obsessive fantasies; he has dreamed of their destruction as a single, thundering explosion that would reshape the daylight. The emptiness of the town removes all external restraint, and his internal compulsion, combined with his intuitive mechanical skill, leads him to the tanks.
What Happens
The Trashcan Man walks to the Cheery Oil facility, carrying a toolkit and a five-gallon can of gasoline. He climbs the spiral stairs to the top of the #1 storage tank, where he uses a wrench and hammer to open the outflow pipe, causing gasoline to trickle out. He drops the gas can over the side, then lights a match. After two matches are extinguished by the breeze, a third ignites the gasoline pool. The flames spread toward the machinery and the open pipe. As the vapor ignites, the outflow pipe is blown off, and the Trashcan Man vaults over the railing, breaking his wrist, and drops to the ground. He runs as the tank explodes with a KA-WHAP, followed by a second and third blast. The fireball creates a gigantic firetree, and burning metal falls around him. He escapes the fallout zone, his skin turning lobster red, and walks north toward Gary, grinning and chanting "Cibola."
Consequences and Aftermath
The Cheery Oil explosion destroys the tank farm and sets Powtanville ablaze, with the fire likely to spread south for months. The Trashcan Man's arm is badly burned, but the event cements his identity as a fire-worshipping servant of chaos. He later meets The Kid, a psychotic car enthusiast, and after a confrontation with wolves sent by Flagg, he is guided west to Las Vegas, where he becomes Flagg's weapons expert. The explosion marks the point of no return for the Trashcan Man, transforming him from a local outcast into a figure of apocalyptic significance, one who will later retrieve an atomic warhead for Flagg's army. The fire also symbolizes the destruction of the old world and the birth of a new, darker order, as the Trashcan Man's "Great Burning" aligns with Flagg's vision of a world consumed by fire.
