NEW ORLEANS - One person was killed and a woman has been booked with negligent homicide after a gas tanker was involved in an accident, then burst into flames after slamming into a gas station parking lot Friday morning.
The incident occurred around 2:30 a.m. near Franklin Avenue and North Claiborne, according to Superintendent Timothy McConnell with the New Orleans Fire Department..
Superintendent McConnell said that the first NOFD company arrived on the scene at 2:37 a.m. to find a crashed 18-wheeler with its cab and engine compartment fully involved in fire.
The tanker truck, carrying 8500 gallons of fuel and owned by Star Oil Company out of Metairie, had collided into the concrete base of a sign at the Quickie's gas station and convenience store at 1535 Franklin Avenue, McConnell added.
Second and third alarms were called for as the fire eventually spread to the truck's 8500 gallon fuel tank, and the incident was also escalated to a Level 2 Hazardous Materials incident based on the amount of fuel involved and the location of the accident.
DEQ arrived at the scene and a one-half mile perimeter was ordered evacuated as a precaution.
The driver of the 18-wheeler did not survive the accident and fire, and his body was recovered from the cab of the vehicle after the fire had been extinguished.
According to witnesses on the scene, a vehicle struck the 18-wheeler causing its driver to lose control and strike the sign at the gas station. The cab of the truck immediately burst into flames, trapping its driver inside.
Another unidentified individual transported themselves to the hospital complaining of smoke inhalation.
While on scene of the fire, NOFD Superintendent Timothy McConnell remarked about the "excellent job firefighters did using foam to contain the fire to the tanker and preventing a catastrophe had the fire spread to the gas pumps."
Twenty-six NOFD units carrying sixty-eight fire suppression personnel were used to bring this incident under control around 6:20 a.m. and no fire personnel were reported injured.
For the second time in less than a month the St. Bernard Parish Fire Department provided much needed mutual aid through the use of one of its foam aspirating trucks.
The New Orleans Police Department, Louisiana State Police, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Entergy, New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board, New Orleans Emergency Medical Service, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and the American Red Cross all assisted in the response to this incident.
Evacuations of nearby homes were executed for about a half-mile radius, but those evacuations were lifted shortly before 6 a.m.,
Power was also out to much of the same area, including traffic lights and other street lights, causing a temporary problem for the morning commute.
Anthony Micheu, NOPD's Traffic Commander says that NOPD has interviewed 33-year-old Shannon Morris, the driver of a black 2004 Acura MDX which was involved in the accident which caused the tanker's driver to lose control. Police say she was driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Morris is currently in NOPD custody and will be booked with negligent homicide according to police.
Police also said that Morris did originally leave the scene of the accident out of fear for her safety but that she contacted police after leaving the scene.
The fire was listed as three alarms and several fire crews responded to the scene, as well as DEQ, NOPD, and NOFD.
"We heard a loud boom and then our power went off," said a resident of the area." Eyewitness News crews noticed that power was out in a several-block area around the scene, but utility crews arrived at the scene and restored power in the area.
Eyewitness News has a crew remaining on the scene and will update the story on WWLTV.com and this evening's broadcasts of Eyewitness News.
