University area businesses closed following crash involving a propane tank
CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Several businesses and people at University Plaza avoided tragedy Sunday afternoon after a man drove into a building, and hit a propane tank.
The car ran into the back of the U.S. Subs restaurant on the 9600 block of University City Boulevard Sunday afternoon just after 4 p.m. The fire started and spread throughout the back wall.
"We heard a loud bang, so everyone went outside. We saw people running toward the building over here," said Nakeisha Flowers, who owns the Coffee Cone Café, which is next to the U.S. Subs.
Flowers says she was making an ice cream sundae for a customer, when she heard a loud bang. She, as well as her customers, went outside to check out what happened.
"The flames were very big. They were coming up out of the gas line," Flowers said.
Despite not causing major injuries, this fire was tricky for the Charlotte Fire Department crew at the scene.
"The location of the meter for both power and gas was on the same spot, and we had some Hazmat there," said Battalion 1 Chief John Harding.
According to MEDIC, the driver was taken to CMC-University with minor injuries. No one else was hurt.
Flowers says she has no idea how the driver, or anybody else, was seriously hurt in the crash.
"Oh, he's very lucky to be alive because he hit a gas line, and that could have been an immediate explosion."
She also says many of the neighboring businesses are lucky to have avoided a catastrophe, since the car ran into a gas line.
After the Charlotte Fire Department put out the fire, a Piedmont Natural Gas crew worked on cutting off the gas line to U.S. Subs. The crew leader told WBTV the restaurant will be closed until inspections inside are complete, which he estimated would take a few days.
The owner of the U.S. Subs tells WBTV the power is cut off in the building where her business is, and she expects some of the neighboring businesses to also be closed for a few days.
The total amount of damage to the building has not been released.
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