It was a horrific scene for Everett residents as they scrambled to escape the intense flames that ignited after a tanker carrying about 9,400 gallons of gasoline overturned in a traffic circle and exploded early Wednesday.
The explosion sent forth a torrent of fire that ignited at least two multifamily homes and as many as 21 cars.
John Malone, who lived in one of the buildings that was destroyed, said he saw flames outside his window when his girlfriend woke him. More concerning, though, was fuel from the truck that he watched move toward the homes.
"It was like a river," he said. "I just grabbed my girlfriend and her aunt and ran."
Malone said he began to hear cars explode as the fuel and flames reached them.
"As the river went, the fire went with it," he said.
Residents of the nearby neighborhood were hastily evacuated, but no one was seriously injured. Some 47 residents self-evacuated while about 85 residents from a nearby 6-story building had to be assisted by firefighters.
"The alarm went off and we all took off out of there," said Francis Mahoney, who lives at the complex and was standing outside the armory wearing sandals, socks and a flannel coat. "All we saw was the flames in front. We had to get out of there."
The accident occurred shortly after 1:30 a.m. at a rotary connecting Routes 16 and 99, fire officials said. State Police Maj. Kevin Kelly said the driver of the tanker lost control, flipped over and struck a guardrail.
Chris Baro said he was asleep in his home when he heard a "big bang" and described a chaotic scene in the neighborhood.
"Everybody was running because it looked like the fire was going to keep coming down the street at us, so we were just trying to get as far away as possible," Baro told WBZ-AM.
"I jumped into my car and started backing up, not knowing that the fire was spreading all the way around us and behind us and I had to drive over the fire," he said.
Baro said he then realized that his own vehicle was on fire.
"We got out of the car and ran and it exploded about two minutes after," he said.
"My brother ran outside to move his car to try to save it, and everyone was yelling at him to get out of the car because all the flames came down and ignited the car," Eddie Baro said. "As soon as he got out of his car it exploded."
Resident Ann Sowers described the explosion as "boom, boom, boom, continuously. We knew we had to get out of the area immediately. The cars were actually blowing up. We saw three actually blow up."
"We turned the television off and we heard loud bangs and opened the door and there was just a wall of fire coming down Main Street," Sowers said. "We went in and got our neighbors and woke up our family and evacuated the area because we thought it was a gas explosion. We came back an hour ago and they said it was a tractor explosion."
The driver, Chad Lafrance, 20, of Dover, N.H., was cited for speeding, but the investigation was ongoing. Lafrance was not injured in the crash.
"We do have a witness that indicated that the truck was traveling at an excessive rate of speed," Kelly said.
Keila Serafim captured the fire and chaos with a cell phone camera.
"In 10 minutes, the whole house was burned. It's pretty amazing how quickly that can happen," Serafim said. "I don't even have words."
By mid-morning icicles had formed on the frames of cars that had been fireballs.
Residents summed up the entire experience. "You know, we're lucky. Everyone's lucky."
"We're all still alive, and that's all that matters."