LOCAL : Gas-Filled Tanker Bursts Into Flames at Station
A tanker truck filled with gasoline caught fire just before noon today at a Canoga Park service station, sending flames shooting 50 feet high.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, and no one was injured, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said.
Gasoline leaking from the tanker at a Thrifty Oil Co. gas station flowed into the street and was set ablaze by a car backfiring, Battalion Chief John Adams said. The station was at the intersection of Bassett Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
Adams said the tanker truck was filling the station’s underground storage tank when it began leaking gasoline from its tanks or hoses. The burning gas spread to the rear tanker of the double-tanker truck. The rear tanker was destroyed.
About 40 firefighters kept the front tanker cool with water and used foam to extinguish the fire, Adams said. The fire was out by 12:15 p.m., Adams said.
The driver of the car that touched off the blaze escaped without injury, but that car and two others parked on the south side of Bassett were destroyed. A fourth car, on the north side of the street, was also damaged by the heat of the flames.
The fire caused a major traffic tie-up in Canoga Park because firefighters had to close Topanga Canyon Boulevard to traffic.
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