BREAKING NEWS
By:Donna Lukiw
An explosive fireball in a tanker truck severely burned two employees at Allied Oil LLC on Old Camplain Road around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The tanker was parked in the parking lot of Allied Oil LLC while the two men, a 54-year-old Basking Ridge resident and a 37-year-old from Dunellen, performed maintenance repairs on the tanker, which was transporting asphalt. "They were cleaning the valve in the rear of the track," Lt. Paul Kaminsky of Hillsborough Police Department said.
Lt. Kaminsky said the investigation is focusing on fumes from the asphalt as the likely cause of the explosion. The two victims, whose names were not released pending notification of relatives, were both transported by Medivac to St. Barnabas Burn Unit in Livingston. Lt. Kaminsky said the victims suffered burns over more than 50 percent of their bodies.
The explosion did not damage any nearby structures the trailer was intact after the blast.
The Hillsborough Police Department, Somerset County prosecutor’s office, Somerset County Sheriff’s Department, Manville fire departments, Somerville Fire Department, all three Hillsborough fire companies, Hazmat Unit, Medical Intensive Care Unit, Hillsborough and Somerville rescue squads, and the Somerset County and Hillsborough Counterterrorism units responded to the scene.