Family Escapes as Tanker Truck Crashes Into Apartment

A family of four was looking for a new home Saturday afternoon after a gasoline tanker truck crashed into their Sherman Oaks apartment Friday night when the driver may have suffered a seizure.

No one was seriously injured by the impact and no gasoline was spilled when the truck hit several parked cars and a two-story apartment building on the 4900 block of Woodman Ave., said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

Fifty firefighters and 10 firetrucks responded to the 10 p.m. accident, Humphrey said.

About 100 people were evacuated from the neighborhood as firefighters transferred 9,000 gallons of gasoline from the damaged tanker to another truck, he said.

“It seems almost miraculous there was no fuel spill or fire,” Humphrey said. “It could have been a cataclysmic event.”

Firefighters worked for about five hours to transfer the gasoline and remove the truck. The tanker penetrated several feet into Lubomir Gueorguiev’s ground-floor apartment. On Saturday, crumbled drywall and bricks from the damaged fireplace filled the living room, where wood beams supported the ceiling.

Gueorguiev said his mother, Margarita, 56, was sitting on the sofa watching TV when the truck crashed through the living room wall.

She was uninjured but was treated at a hospital after complaining of chest pains. She was later released.

“I don’t know how she’s alive,” said Gueorguiev, 29. “It’s horrible.”

Gueorguiev was not home at the time, but his wife, Elena Borilova, 30, and their 6-month-old son were in the apartment. They were not injured.

The driver of the truck, Emmanuel Hawkins, may have suffered a seizure before the accident, said Lt. Ron Tingle of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Hawkins, 40, of West Covina, was not visibly injured, but he was unconscious when bystanders helped firefighters pull him out of the truck, Humphrey said.

Hawkins was in stable condition at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.