Two hurt in tanker truck fire

LOS ANGELES — A 9,000-gallon tanker truck leaking gasoline caught fire and triggered multiple explosions in South Los Angeles early Sunday, igniting surrounding structures and sending a huge column of black smoke into the air, authorities said.

Fire officials arrived at the scene on West Slauson Avenue about 7:45 a.m. to find the truck and surrounding area fully engulfed, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said.

The explosions occurred with such force that they broke a large manhole cover in half just east of Brentwood Street and Slauson and set a nearby home on fire, officials said. Much of the damage was confined to the home and an adjacent parking lot surrounded by corrugated metal.

Two people were injured in the blast, one of them seriously, officials said. Both were taken to a hospital, where they remained hours after the incident.

Felipe Cuevas, 30, lives just a few hundred yards away.

“My sister was getting home from work about 8 a.m. when she smelled gas in the air,” Cuevas said. “She reported it to the gas company. The gas company told her it would be there as soon as possible. As soon as she walked back into the house, there was a loud … boom, followed by six or seven more booms separated by about five minutes.”

Cuevas looked out at the neighborhood.

“Man, it was scary — look!” he said, showing his arms still covered in goose bumps. “I pulled out the garden hose, I started drenching our roof and my neighbors’ roofs with water. I still didn’t know what was going on. Then firefighters said, ‘You have to leave.’”