Tractor-trailer bursts into flames on Long Island Expressway in Elmhurst: FDNY

The FDNY received a call just after 4:30 p.m. reporting a tractor-trailer on fire. Arriving units were able to extinguish the blaze and the driver was not injured and the incident was closed within the hour.

Traffic was snarled in both directions for the start of the evening rush. 

The FDNY faced a far more treacherous incident when a fuel tanker crashed to the southeast of JFK Airport in Meadowmere, a small six-block neighborhood on the Queens and Nassau border at the eastern end of Jamaica Bay.

The FDNY received a call at 11:10 a.m. on Aug. 19 reporting an overturned tanker truck at Rockaway Boulevard and Meyer Avenue in Rosedale, but arriving units found the rig had flipped on the other side on Hook Creek in Meadowmere.

Officers from the Nassau County Police Department were already at the scene and reported a large gasoline spill on the roadway near a Costco, an office building and a Mattress Firm store at the intersection of East Avenue. The FDNY activated a foam operation response and dispatched a total of 21 units, including 79 firefighters and EMS personnel, to the location.

According to the Nassau County Police Department, a 42-year-old male was operating a 2024 Gasoline Tanker traveling southbound when he attempted to make a left-hand turn onto Rockaway Boulevard at 11:08 a.m., but the rig overturned, causing a fuel spill. The driver was evaluated at the scene but refused medical attention. The Meadowmere Park Fire Department in North Lawrence and neighboring fire departments responded along with Nassau County OEM and the Nassau County Emergency Service Unit.

The FDNY sprayed the spill with foam to prevent an ignition while crews from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation worked to contain the gasoline spill from entering Spring Creek, which flows into Jamaica Bay.

The tanker truck was carrying approximately 8,500 gallons of gasoline when it overturned, spilling an estimated 2,000 gallons onto the roadway and into storm drains, officials said. Rockaway Boulevard remained closed to vehicular traffic until just before 11 p.m. on Aug. 19, while the cleanup continued into the following day.