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Of flame and smoke and thinking, oh, my god, there s no way somebody s going to live through that. dude, dude, dude, back up. i think that truck s going to start catching fire. in the back of my mind, i m trying to figure out what s the best thing that we can do for the viewer to make them understand what we have just captured. it turns out johnson isn t the only tv person on scene. it s a news unit that he hit. the tractor trailer slams into an suv from another tv station parked on the side of the highway. the cameraman had just left his vehicle and narrowly escapes getting hit by the truck and debris. that was mere seconds of walking away from a news vehicle, being in a location in which if he had decided to wait two, three more seconds, he may not be with us. the cameraman recovers from nearly being hit and starts recording the fiery truck from the ground. incredibly, seconds later, the driver of the smoking truck opens his door and climbs out. ....
Ignite. a massive fireball launches into the air. the enormous blast consumes an entire city block and is felt for miles. thick smoke consumes the entire sky. dozens of vehicles are scorched by the inferno, and several nearby buildings are set on fire. police report 30 people, 8 of them firefighters, are injured during the disaster. incredibly, there are no fatalities. coming up a gas station blows sky-high. an 18-wheeler crashes and burns. and a freight train releases a vapor cloud that ignites. i ve been called a control freak. i like to think of myself as more of a control. enthusiast. ....
Would blow it into the power line. caleb skurtle lives across the street and starts recording the unusual event on his cell phone as his neighbors begin to gather and watch. hell loy [ muted ]! at that point, like we had already called the fire department. it seemed like most people were just kind of standing around, eyes to the sky. this is amazing. this is ridiculous. powerful jolts of electricity pulse through the tree, down to the ground, over and over again. i think it was like a 24,000 volt power line. i think that s what the energy company said. making matters worse, the wind pushes the large tree harder onto the surging power lines. now it s really heating up. looks further down, too. oh, my gosh! there s nothing the spectators can do as the fire moves down the center of the tree. i m moving back a little bit. ....
Oil off the top of the water and dumps it into two holding tanks on the east end of the facility. the video shows the super-heated glob of oil funnel from the gun barrel into the holding tank where it ignites the raw crude inside. seconds later, the flare erupts. then the tank blows up. it went up over our heads. i m going to say every bit of 200 feet high. and i could still see the tank today with fire coming out of the bottom of it as it s spinning going through the air. it landed about 75 or 80 yards away from us. we were very fortunate it didn t come down on one of our personnel or our apparatus. the tank right next to it explodes soon after, but this one stays anchored to the ground. the next explosion was the second holding tank that had raw crude oil in it. that tank separated at the top, and only the top came off. just as dangerous as the explosions, the falling shower of hot, twisted metal. ....
The low ground. the chemical cloud was actually following me, circling me up, so i retreated back. the texarkana fire department also responds, but battalion chief rick pavick doesn t see the vapor cloud. he s taken completely by surprise when the gas finds an ignition source and erupts 500 feet away. it was real crazy. it was amazing, is what it was, just to be that close to something that large and watch it spread out. when the gas ignites, officer mcadams dash cam records the initial sound, but the explosion is out of view. the texarkana police dispatcher has a clear view of the train tracks and radios officer mcadams. we just had a huge explosion, and we ve got massive fire out here. all kinds of stuff on fire. as officer mcadams starts backing up, the flames race down the track and into the camera s view as the gas explodes over and over again. anywhere that vapor from the ....