Gas tanker erupts, scores evacuated outside Boston

(CNN) -- At least 200 people were evacuated from their homes, including 84 residents of an apartment building for the elderly, after a tanker truck carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline erupted early Wednesday in a northern Boston suburb.

No serious injuries were reported in the Everett, Massachusetts, blast, but witnesses recounted close calls to a local television station. One man said he narrowly escaped from his car before it exploded.

"In consideration of everything that firefighters had to deal with, I think it's a miracle that we haven't seen some serious injuries," Everett Fire Chief David Butler said.

The tanker overturned and caught fire at a traffic circle in the town of about 37,000 outside Boston. Officials are investigating whether the driver was speeding, Butler said.

"Our major concerns right now are we still have an ongoing fire operation in the family dwellings, and we are still heavily engaged in those operations, and we have some concerns environmentally," Butler said. Watch residents of an elderly housing complex describe their shock »

Flames from the truck engulfed at least 40 cars and three buildings, two of them houses, fire officials said. The truck was destroyed, but the driver was not seriously injured, the officials said.

WCVB-TV in Boston identified the driver as Chad LaFrance of Dover, New Hampshire.

Seven hours after the truck caught fire, firefighters were still battling a blaze in one of the homes, according to the television station.

Evacuees were taken to an armory converted into a shelter, Red Cross official Amelia Aubourg told CNN. Local streets were closed temporarily, and a nearby school was shut down for the day, WCVB reported.

One evacuee who fled a high-rise building told the television station he saw at least 15 cars burning.

"And popping, they were popping. I don't know if it was tires that were blowing, but they were completely gone, the cars," Dan Savage told WCVB.

Nearby resident Chris Barrow awoke to the sound of a "big bang," he told WCVB. At first, he thought it was a car accident, but when he went outside to investigate the noise, he saw fire "just coming down the hill toward the houses as fast as you could think."

Barrow tried to escape in his car, but fire quickly surrounded the vehicle, he told the TV station.

"I rode over the fire and my car caught fire," he told WCVB. "I got out just in time, and I ran a couple feet just before it blew up." E-mail to a friend

CNN's Michelle Cumbo and Saundra Booker contributed to this report.

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