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A trucker was killed when an oil tanker overturned and burst into flames Monday in Queens, triggering a series of massive explosions as each of the truck's holding tanks ignited.
"It was a giant fire. A very big fire. I heard boom, boom, boom, about four or five times," said Sam Shadow, 62, a maintenance worker at a nearby hotel who had to retreat from a roof due to the heat.
"It was too hot. It was very scary," he said from the Best Western Carlton House, which was empty. "The fire was as high as the trees."
The driver of the truck, which was carting 9,000 gallons of gasoline, appeared to have lost control as he tried to navigate a curved ramp onto the Van Wyck Expressway in South Ozone Park, authorities said.
The tanker flipped, tumbled over a barrier and landed on its side in the opposite lanes about 12:15 p.m., cops said.
Port Authority police and FDNY trucks arrived quickly to the scene near North Conduit Boulevard and blanketed the fireball with foam, officials said.
"The gasoline was ignited. And 9,000 gallons of gasoline create a high-intensity fire," said FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Ronald Spadafora. "There was a series of explosions as different compartments of the truck got ignited and created bursts."
Some 280 firefighters worked to quell the flames, which sent plumes of thick, black smoke into the air near JFK Airport, as the truck lay on its side.
Firefighters were concerned the fire might have spread to the 15-story hotel or the Van Wyck overpass that loomed some 100 yards away.
"We were also worry about the fumes going into drains," Spadafora said. "We had a multitude of different problems we were dealing with."
It did not appear that other vehicles were involved in the crash. About half of the 9,000 gallons of gas burned, officials said.
The victim, who was badly burned, died inside the cab. His identity was not immediately known.
Service at JFK Airport was not affected, although traffic was snarled for miles around the scene, officials said.
"It's a very sharp curve there," Faruq Abdul-Hakim, 63, who lives near the crash scene, said of the ramp onto the northbound Van Wyck. "A lot of vehicle's crash over there. It's very dangerous."
Of the fire he said: "It was burning out of control. "It was a lot of smoke. You couldn't even see the sun."
