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Pickup truck explosion caught on video in North Carolina goes viral

LEXINGTON, N.C. — A video of a pickup truck exploding in the parking lot of a North Carolina restaurant has gone viral.

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The pickup was carrying a propane tank when it caught fire at Speedy’s Barbecue on Monday, The Dispatch of Lexington reported.

According to Waylon Turbeville, battalion chief for the Lexington Fire Department, at approximately 6 p.m. EDT, crews responded to a report of a vehicle fire at the restaurant, the newspaper reported.

“It exploded, it blew up. there’s no telling where the rest of the pieces went,” restaurant manager Joel “Jay” Johnson told WXII-TV. “It had a propane tank in the back of the truck and it (flame) was 100 feet high or higher.

“If the fire department would have gotten here one minute earlier they would have been right beside the truck putting the fire out when it exploded.”

According to Turbeville, the driver of the pickup said they were traveling with the propane truck in the bed of vehicle when it fell over, The Dispatch reported. The driver pulled over at Speedy’s, and the passenger got out to secure the tank and noticed it was leaking, according to the newspaper.

A fire ignited and quickly engulfed the vehicle, Turbeville said. Both occupants of the pickup exited the vehicle but received second- and third-degree burns, WGHP reported. They were taken to an area hospital, where they were treated and released from the hospital later Monday, according to The Dispatch.

In the video, posted by Toby Bivens of Lexington, Johnson can be seen outside the restaurant in a red shirt, calling 911. The explosion was loud.

“I’ve never been hit with anything at a hard before,” Johnson told WGHP. “I almost relate it to falling off a third or fourth story building.”

“(Turbeville) said that they had just got a call about a fire. And as soon as he said that, this crazy-intense explosion happened, and we all basically turned and ran.”

The video has been seen by more than 73,000 people.

“The whole restaurant shook from it,” Lucas Bivens, an employee of Speedy’s, told WGHP.

Both the restaurant and a nearby gas station lost power for a few hours as a result of the explosion, The Dispatch reported.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Turbeville said.