Massive Explosion on IH-10E in Flatonia, TX
About 3:30 I hear my daughter stirring in her bed. I wake up and here sirens going off. Not too uncommon where I live, my house is about 1/4 mile due north of IH-10 in Flatonia and with a good South wind it sounds like they're pulling up to our house. I slowly composed myself and started the stagger towards her room on the other side of our house. Not 10 steps out of our room I hear what sounded more like an explosion, but my mind said gun shot and close (within 20 feet of my house). I ducked down and scrambled back to our room grabbed my pistol from my hand safe, ran to the closet, retrieved my 12 gauge and handed it to my wife, we grabbed the portable phone and start the slow sprint to Jolie's room to make sure she is secure. Then, boom, again, what sounds like another shot except louder this time, we both get to my daughter's room, and my wife begins to calm her, while I dial 911 and stand guard with my weim.
Just as the emergency dispatch picks up I look out the window towards Flatonia for anyone moving around and I see the flames erupting into the sky and a large plume of fire coming from IH-10. I realized what happened and reported the explosion. She informed that it was two 18 wheeler's colliding. I described what I saw and she hung up. I'm sure she was getting flooded with calls.
The fire is massive. Over 150 feet high and a hundred yards across. The fire as of 20 minutes ago is contained to the South side of the interstate from what I can tell. I threw on some clothes to drive by a friends house that I thought was within a couple hundred yards of the fire. Luckily I was off on my distance the fire is about 1/2 mile east of Flatonia.
Life flight was arriving just as I drove back up to my house. And now has just left. I'm afraid there may have been a loss of life. Pray for the drivers of the trucks and pray for the responders running towards the fire. I hope that we did not have a responder close to the trucks when the fire exploded but I am terribly afraid we did. The fire could not have been just a couple of vehicle fuel tanks blowing as loud and as big as the explosion and fire was, I'm afraid this was a tanker of some sort that blew. I did not see any colored smoke, so hopefully it was not a chem fire. This is bad.
I never knew if I would be ready in case of a possible intruder/shooting situation at my house in the middle of the night. My adrenaline was pumping and my response could've been a little faster for securing my family. But, luckily it was just a trial run and my instincts did how I had trained for.
Please send up some prayers for the responders (there are many units from the county and surrounding towns) fighting the blaze.
Update as I'm typing.
The wind is blowing this fire directly towards my house less than a 1/4 mile from the accident. If it jumps to 609 I will have to evacuate quickly and grab everything I can load in to cars, as I'll only have about 15 minutes to get everything out. I have a 6 acre hay patch sitting in front of my house and the fire will move quick towards me. As of right now the orange glow is not growing dim. There are 3 homes between me and the fire two within 200 yards of the flame.
Just as the emergency dispatch picks up I look out the window towards Flatonia for anyone moving around and I see the flames erupting into the sky and a large plume of fire coming from IH-10. I realized what happened and reported the explosion. She informed that it was two 18 wheeler's colliding. I described what I saw and she hung up. I'm sure she was getting flooded with calls.
The fire is massive. Over 150 feet high and a hundred yards across. The fire as of 20 minutes ago is contained to the South side of the interstate from what I can tell. I threw on some clothes to drive by a friends house that I thought was within a couple hundred yards of the fire. Luckily I was off on my distance the fire is about 1/2 mile east of Flatonia.
Life flight was arriving just as I drove back up to my house. And now has just left. I'm afraid there may have been a loss of life. Pray for the drivers of the trucks and pray for the responders running towards the fire. I hope that we did not have a responder close to the trucks when the fire exploded but I am terribly afraid we did. The fire could not have been just a couple of vehicle fuel tanks blowing as loud and as big as the explosion and fire was, I'm afraid this was a tanker of some sort that blew. I did not see any colored smoke, so hopefully it was not a chem fire. This is bad.
I never knew if I would be ready in case of a possible intruder/shooting situation at my house in the middle of the night. My adrenaline was pumping and my response could've been a little faster for securing my family. But, luckily it was just a trial run and my instincts did how I had trained for.
Please send up some prayers for the responders (there are many units from the county and surrounding towns) fighting the blaze.
Update as I'm typing.
The wind is blowing this fire directly towards my house less than a 1/4 mile from the accident. If it jumps to 609 I will have to evacuate quickly and grab everything I can load in to cars, as I'll only have about 15 minutes to get everything out. I have a 6 acre hay patch sitting in front of my house and the fire will move quick towards me. As of right now the orange glow is not growing dim. There are 3 homes between me and the fire two within 200 yards of the flame.
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