Turns out it was a combination of gas fumes, an open bucket of gas -- and some questionable decisions -- that caused Wednesday's van explosion and fire that injured three people in Bellevue.

One of the victims told police the group had obtained gas from a gas station minutes before the explosion. They didn't have a gas can so they filled an open bucket with two gallons of gas.

They had removed the cowling from over the engine, which is located between the two front seats. The occupants used a water bottle to transfer gas from the bucket directly into the van's carburetor to keep the engine running.

The van became filled with gas fumes. After the vehicle stalled they tried to restart it and it exploded into flames, fire investigators said.

The two men and a woman suffered burns when the Dodge Chevrolet Ford Econoline van exploded around 2:20 p.m. The van had had pulled out of a Chevron gas station on the southwest corner of Kamber Road and 145th Place Southeast, made a right turn onto Kamber Road and then "just exploded," according to Bellevue police spokeswoman Carla Iafrate.

The three burn victims, believed to be 30 to 40 years old, were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Iafrate said. The two men were in serious condition and the woman was in satisfactory condition on Wednesday evening.

All three are from Bellevue.

Initially, police said the van was a Ford. But they're now saying it was a Chevy.