Watch This Entire Highway Explode After a Car Drives Over a Liquefied Petroleum Gas Spill
So that’s what AC/DC was singing about.
Talk about a highway to Hell: A liquefied petroleum gas spill on an expressway in China erupted into a gargantuan inferno that engulfed the entire roadway and several vehicles after a car drove through the highly flammable substance and caused it to ignite. And somehow—amazingly—everyone involved survived.
The explosion occurred on the Beijing-Harbin highway in northern China on Sunday, according to Mirror, and the dramatic scene was captured on a driver's dash cam. In the clip, a tanker trunk that was carrying the liquefied gas is crumpled on the side of the road following an earlier accident. It's tough to see, but you can just make out a huge LPG leak gushing out onto the highway. Several cars inch forward, including what looks like a brand-new Mazda CX-4 demo vehicle, unaware of the calamity about to unfold.
Suddenly, a towering column of fire erupts from underneath the Mazda, spreading across the highway in less than a second and creating a wall of roiling flames that looks to be at least fifty feet high. The car that sparked the explosion looks to be totally consumed, while another driver flees their vehicle and runs from the blast as the camera car backs up in a panic. Incredibly, you can see the Mazda driver later jump out and sprint away when the flames briefly die down; despite the fire's incredible intensity, it thankfully didn't burn long enough to incinerate the vehicle and its unlucky occupant.
When liquefied petroleum gas—commonly sold as propane and butane—leaks out of a high-pressure container, it's sometimes released as a liquid that quickly evaporates thanks to its extremely low boiling point. However, the gas is still heavier than air, so it pools on the ground and poses an invisible and dangerous fire hazard. That's why the inferno ends up stretching for hundreds of yards down the side of the highway as the LPG drained off the road surface like water.
Mirror reports that while the truck driver received serious burns, everyone else involved got away with minor injuries. Cars can be surprisingly safe places in a fire—but this one definitely could have ended a lot worse.
