Wills Point, TX (KYTX) -- A fiery explosion in Van Zandt County, waking up nearby residents in the dead of night.
"It sounded like in the movies, it shook the ground," Eric Kittle, who lives in Wills Point, said.
Kittle lives in a house right across from where the crash happened at Highway 80 and Commerce Street in Wills Point.
"I woke up to police banging on door telling us to get out, and flames," Kittle said.
Wills Point police, worried about toxic fumes from the collision, asked nearby residents like Kittle to leave as a precaution, but he says he stayed with frantic thoughts racing through his mind.
"I thought war had come to Wills Point. It was pretty intense," Kittle said.
What happened is a Union Pacific freight train collided with a fuel tanker that was stalled on the tracks. It held thousands of gallons of fuel.
"It was probably the biggest explosion I've ever been on," John Morrison, Fire Chief of the Wills Point Fire Department, said.
Morrison said fortunately the driver of the tanker bailed in time. Union Pacific representatives say an engineer and conductor inside the train did hit the emergency brakes, but couldn't avoid the inevitable.
"Sometimes a train can take up to a mile to fully stop. So, they saw the truck as they were approaching, but the train didn't stop before it impacted the truck," Clint Schelbitzki, Director of Public Affairs for Union Pacific, said.
Crews battled flames for 4 hours, then had to repair 100 feet of track damaged in the fire. "This is our main highway through North Texas, so it does cause considerable delay to other freight trains traveling across corridor," Schelbitzki said.
The cargo included steering wheel covers, floor mats, seat covers, and power tools. Three cars were damaged in the crash, and the tanker carrying 8 thousand gallons of gasoline, was completely destroyed.
According to Union Pacific, tracks were repaired as of 2:30 Thursday afternoon and all wreckage was cleared.
