Block Burned in Blast Near Sacramento

A seven-alarm fire erupted early today when a gasoline tanker truck overturned, setting off 100-foot-high walls of flame and burning “a country block” of homes and apartments in this affluent Sacramento suburb.

Flames licked up from opened manhole covers in cul-de-sacs as burning gasoline spilled into storm drains. A witness told investigators that the truck appeared to be traveling too fast when it attempted to negotiate a curve and overturned, pouring gasoline into the streets.

The fire started at 3:05 a.m. when the tanker loaded with 8,400 gallons of gasoline turned over about half a mile from the American River and about 10 miles from where the American and Sacramento rivers meet, fire officials said.

“I heard sirens and felt an incredible explosion that shook the house. Then there were secondary explosions. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. It looked like a war zone,” said resident Jeff Smith.

“We were asleep in our apartment and heard stuff blowing up outside. We looked out and it was cars exploding in the parking lot,” said Michelle Sumrall, who fled in her bathrobe and boarded an evacuation bus at dawn.

“It looked like the Fourth of July,” she said.

More than 100 firefighters evacuated an area of two square miles, including a convalescent hospital. Two houses were destroyed and two were damaged, Sacramento fire officials said.

A firefighter, the tanker truck driver and one resident suffered minor injuries.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Bob Carlson said witnesses reported that gasoline leaking from the truck ignited some distance from the vehicle, and the fireball followed the fuel back to the truck, causing an explosion.

The driver was identified as John David Parker, 35, of Sacramento. Authorities said the truck was owned by Calzona Tankways Inc., of Phoenix.

Carlson said a newspaper carrier who saw the accident said Parker appeared to be traveling about 50 m.p.h. in a 35 m.p.h. zone.