Fiery tanker crash kills driver, burns Maryland properties

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — A tanker truck hauling a flammable liquid crashed on a Maryland freeway Saturday and caught hearth, killing the motive force and damaging a number of properties and automobiles, authorities mentioned.

The truck crashed round midday on U.S. 15 in Frederick, about an hour’s drive west of Baltimore. Images confirmed huge flames and billowing smoke.

Fireplace crews arrived inside minutes of receiving a number of emergency calls and located the truck utterly engulfed in a hearth that had additionally unfold to a few properties and vehicles, Frederick Fireplace Chief Tom Coe mentioned at a information convention

A kind of properties was extensively broken, displacing the residents. The opposite two sustained minor injury, Coe mentioned.

The tanker driver, who was not instantly recognized, died however no different accidents have been reported, Coe mentioned.

Authorities mentioned the precise chain of occasions that led to the crash is below investigation. Officers are additionally working to find out precisely what substance the tanker was hauling, although Coe mentioned it was believed to be a generally transported flammable liquid like gasoline or diesel gas that poses no menace to most people.

Crews will probably be monitoring the air high quality and isolating the world the place the liquid saturated soil for cleanup, he mentioned. Officers mentioned there was no breach of the town’s sewer system or a close-by creek.

The crash initially shut down U.S. 15, which runs by means of the town of about 80,000 individuals, in each instructions, the State Freeway Administration mentioned.