The retained crew were called to the village after spending much of Sunday night and Monday pumping out flooded properties throughout
West Devon.
Sub-officer Tim Smith said: 'The river flooded and ruptured the pipes on these 1,200 kilo LPG cylinders. What appeared to be bubbles in the water turned out to be a cloud of gas, so everyone was standing in this very explosive atmosphere without knowing it.
'There was some guy smoking there and the BBC with all their electric cables — we were very lucky to get away with it.'
Mr Smith said a 500-metre exclusion zone was immediately called and one of the crew, a gas fitter, waded in to isolate the valve.
'If it had exploded it would have taken out 30 or 40 people and ten or so houses,' said Mr Smith.
The crew helped pump out several houses at Lifton, some of which had been under five feet of water — resident Gerald Brown said the flooding was the worst he had seen in the area since the Christmas of 1979.
Roger Collins, head of building services at West Devon Borough Council, said staff distributed sandbags in Lifton but admitted there was little they could do in the circumstances.
'I don't think anybody could have prevented this. The River Lyd is a major river — if it decides to flood, it floods. You have to accept that if you live in a flood plain. It's sad, but I think that's the situation.'
Firecrews from Yelverton and Bere Alston spent 22 hours pumping out a flooding well at Horrabridge.
Exhausted spokesman John German said 24 hoselengths, a mini-ejector pump and light pump were used to clear floods under floorboards and keep levels in the well down.
The Chichester Arms at Chillaton also fell victim to the heavy rains on Sunday night.
Landlord Roy Passmore was alerted at 7am on Monday.
He said: 'There was a lake outside the pub — basically all the leaves blocked the drains up but unfortunately the whole room was under about five inches of water.'
At Bridestowe, a cottage was flooded when the River Lew flowed over.
And Tavistock Police Station was hit — the police garage was flooded to a depth of six inches and water seeped into parts of the main station, soaking mats and carpets.
Sgt Peter Horgan said: 'Unfortunately the drains in the car park were blocked and there was nowhere the water could go.
'I was co-ordinating officers and mopping out at the same time!'
On Saturday part of a large tree crashed down at Lamerton, taking British Telecom cabling with it and smashing into the roofs of two cars.
'Luckily no-one was hurt, that was the main thing,' said Sgt Horgan. 'Last night the remainder of the same tree came down, crashing over the public seating there and bringing down power lines.'
The road between Two Bridges and Princetown was blocked by fallen trees on Sunday night and the A386 near Lydford was also blocked due to a tree crashing down.
Sgt Horgan said: 'I had to phone up local farmers — they came out and assisted with cutting up the branches. I'd like to give a big thanks to Mr Cole and Mr Colton for their help.'
Sunday night storms proved too much for a huge 140-year-old beech tree in front of Tavistock Vicarage.
The Rev John Rawlings said: 'Mercifully it fell into the other tree. It's very sad — it's a shame but it would have been awful if it had fallen on a car or a bus.'
Some schoolchildren in the area had an unexpected extra day's holiday — Meavy School was closed on Monday and governors at Tavistock Primary School decided to shut on Tuesday after struggling through Monday with no power, heating or telephones.
l More flood stories — pages 5 & 8.