Dramatic cellphone video out of California shows the moment after a tanker truck overturned outside a restaurant, releasing a rolling torrent of fire and smoke.
According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the accident occurred around 10:00 a.m. local time Tuesday just off Highway 99 in Atwater, Calif.
Police say the tanker truck was getting off the highway headed southbound when the truck overturned, spilling the 34,000 litres of gasoline it was carrying according to Calfire-Merced County emergency response.
“It sounds like he was exiting the freeway at Applegate, probably going too fast. There are skid marks out there to indicate that,” CHP spokesperson Eric Zuniga told KCRA News.
Amateur video captured at a Panda Express restaurant next to the offramp shows the terrifying scene, described by one bystander as looking like “…an ocean of fire that crashed in waves down the road.”
“I looked up and there was this fire like a wall and then we heard the explosion — the first explosion,” Jeanine Jaroszek told The Merced Sun-Star. “I’ve never seen fire move like that.”
The video of the fire was captured by Metta Xiong, manager of the Panda Express, who grabbed her phone when she heard a loud bang.
“You could hear the tanker hit and the cars just exploding one after another,” Xiong told ABC-30 News.
The California Highway Patrol confirmed that the driver of the tanker was killed in the incident.
Police say that despite the large fire no other buildings caught fire, and no one else was seriously injured.
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