by OREN YANIV and MICHAEL WHITE
A trucker was killed when an oil tanker overturned and burst into flames Monday in Queens, triggering a series of massive explosions as each of the truck's holding tanks ignited.
"It was a giant fire. A very big fire. I heard boom, boom, boom, about four or five times," said Sam Shadow, 62, a maintenance worker at a nearby hotel who had to retreat from a roof due to the heat.
"It was too hot. It was very scary," he said from the vacant Best Western Carlton House. "The fire was as high as the trees."
The driver of the truck, which was carting 9,000 gallons of gasoline, appeared to have lost control as he tried to navigate a curved ramp onto the Van Wyck Expressway in South Ozone Park, authorities said.
The truck flipped, tumbled over a barrier and landed on its side in the opposite lanes about 12:15 p.m., cops said. Port Authority police and FDNY trucks arrived quickly to the scene near North Conduit Ave. and blanketed the fireball with foam, officials said.
"The gasoline was ignited. And 9,000 gallons of gasoline create a high-intensity fire," said FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Ronald Spadafora. "There was a series of explosions as different compartments of the truck got ignited and created bursts."
Some 280 firefighters worked for two hours to quell the flames, which sent plumes of thick, black smoke into the air near JFK Airport. Firefighters were concerned the fire might have spread to the 15-story hotel or the Van Wyck overpass some 100 yards away.
It did not appear that other vehicles were involved in the crash. About half of the 9,000 gallons of gas burned, officials said. The rest remained in the tanks.
The victim, who was badly burned, died inside the cab. His identity was not immediately known.
Service at JFK was not affected, but AirTrain was delayed for about 20 minutes and traffic was snarled for miles around, officials said.
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