A gas station owner in Jefferson County is trying to figure out if he can salvage his business after a tanker truck exploded Thursday and set off a chain reaction of fires.
"The second explosion was kind of scary," stated Steve Shivley. "We heard some people down there by the apartments screaming, people running trying to drive away as fast as they could."
It took a team of mostly volunteer firefighters two hours to battle the 100-foot flames at a gas station in Mud Lake.
Onlookers say it felt like the whole town was out watching the spectacle.
"We got done loading hay trucks and were driving home when we seen a big orange glow in the sky," said John Shivley. "We look down here to Mud Lake and we seen the fire starting, so we came from there and drove down here."
"The first explosion we saw was from two miles away, and it just kinda lit up the sky," said Steve Shivley. "A big orange glow and then you can see the flame. The next big explosion was like a huge mushroom cloud, an orange ball of flame."
A friend of the gas station owner says the fire started while the driver of tanker truck was filling three unleaded gasoline tanks behind the store. Deputies say the truck began experiencing problems, and soon burst into flames. The flames then caused two other tanks to explode.
One onlooker caught the explosion on his cell phone camera.
Law enforcement evacuated several homes around the area. Residents were able to return to their homes before 9 p.m.
Ambulance crews set up an emergency center at the Senior Citizen's Center, but amazingly no one was injured.
