Gasoline Tanker Explodes, Sends Ball of Fire Across 101

A truck towing two tankers full of gasoline exploded on Highway 101 early Tuesday, critically burning the driver, sending a raging fire across the freeway and spewing fuel down a canyon toward the beach, authorities said.

The driver of the tanker-truck, carrying up to about 8,800 gallons of gasoline, may have fallen asleep at the wheel when the tanker overturned about 12:45 a.m. in the northbound lanes, about 20 miles north of Santa Barbara, said Santa Barbara County Fire spokesman Keith Cullom.

Driver George Mills, 42, was pinned for a short time behind the steering wheel when the rig overturned and landed in a ditch, California Highway Patrol Officer Tom Campbell said.

“Then he saw a flash, thought the gasoline might catch fire, and managed to free himself,” Campbell said.

“He was running from the vehicle when it exploded into a fireball, totally engulfing him,” Campbell said.

“There was a huge wall of flames that engulfed both lanes of the freeway,” he said. “Officers responding to the incident said they could see the glow from 10 miles away.”

Mills, from Acton, Calif., suffered severe burns over 100% of his body, and was in critical condition at the Sherman Oaks Burn Center in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, Cullom said.

The fuel spilled from the crash site on the northbound shoulder into the frontage road, then entered a drainage culvert under the freeway and flowed to the ocean, Cullom said.

“It burned about five acres of brush before reaching the ocean,” he said. He added that the toxic fuel’s potential damage to sea life had not been determined.

“We don’t know yet how much fuel flowed into the ocean,” the spokesman said.

The southbound lanes were reopened at about 3 a.m. after utility officials determined burned wires that fell onto the highway were not hazardous to motorists, he said. One of the two northbound lanes reopened about 5 a.m., 1 1/2 hours after the fire was controlled.

There were no structures in the fire’s path, and nearby campers, about 200 yards away, were not evacuated, Collom added.