Explosion, Fire Rocks Northside
POSTED: 1:39 pm EST December 19, 2007
UPDATED: 2:50 pm EST December 19, 2007JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Dozens of fire-rescue crews and every hazardous-materials unit in Jacksonville are battling a large fire that resulted from an explosion of an industrial facility on Faye Road, just off state Road 9A north of Heckscher Drive.
A thick plume of black smoke and flames could be seen for miles around. Callers to Channel 4 described a flash, an explosion and a mushroom cloud about 1:30 p.m.
"There was like this tremendous boom like I've never heard in my life," said Shannon Story, who works nearby. "Everything shook in the building, the power went out, light bulbs fell from ceiling. We all evacuated as fast as we could."
Police have blocked traffic on Faye Road between Alta Drive and New Berlin Road and are evacuating the area.
"I saw this humongous, huge fire, flames," said a Channel 4 viewer named Beverly. "The flames must have went up 20 stories tall. It wasn't a moment that a mushroom cloud appeared."
Channel 4 was told the explosion was at T2 Labs, a chemical company that makes solvents and gasoline additives.
Thick, black smoke continues to billow from the fire an hour after the initial explosion. "The explosion rocked my house," Carlton Higginbotham said.
Hospitals were put on alert, but there has been no report yet of casualties.
