Tanker bursts into flames on Sunrise Highway in Bellmore

A tanker truck overturned on Sunrise Highway in Bellmore late Tuesday night, causing a fuel spill that erupted in flames. Officials estimate that 3,000 to 7,000 gallons of fuel escaped from the tanker, which flipped on its side just before midnight.

Nassau County Police Department public information officers said that a fuel truck traveling east on Sunrise Highway struck the back of a car that was stopped at a red light at Newbridge Road at 11:52 p.m. on Dec. 17. The truck turned on its side and careened east on Sunrise, spilling fuel along the way before stopping at Brevoort Place.

The fuel caught fire, officials said, damaging surrounding cars and homes on Brevoort Place. Vincent Scaduto, the Bellmore Fire Department's public information officer, said firefighters extinguished the blaze in about 90 minutes. 

The drivers of both cars escaped their vehicles before the fire ignited, Scaduto said. They were taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries.

No one else was injured, Scaduto said, as the homes on Brevoort Place did not catch fire. The siding on four of the five houses on the short block, between Sunrise and Clinton Street, melted from the heat of the blaze, along with a PVC fence. There was no other damage to the homes, and residents were evacuated.