A massive explosion rocked the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, Tuesday morning after a car crashed into a building’s gas line.
Stunning footage captured a plume of smoke towering from New Centre Drive around 11:30 a.m., shortly after a car lost control and crashed into Eastern Carolina Veterinary Referral, about 7 miles east of the city’s famed Riverwalk.
Debris rained down from the sky across the surrounding blocks as witnesses looked on in awe and terror.
“Oh my god. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh,” one man repeated while he filmed from a nearby car dealership lot. Sirens wailed in the distance and chunks of the building fell audibly to the pavement nearby.
Keep up with today’s most important news
Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update.
Thanks for signing up!
It remains unclear if the impact of the car caused the explosion, or if the gas line burst later.
Firefighters rushed to the scene, with three suffering severe burns to their hands, WECT reported.
The driver of the car fled the scene, but was quickly apprehended.
