Don Petersen | Special to The Roanoke Times

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• Tanker truck fire coverage

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• U.S. 220 tanker fire

A tanker truck traveling northbound on U.S. 220 went over an embankment just before the Franklin Road exit near Old Southwest and caught fire about 10 p.m. Saturday, according to Roanoke police.

Police spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said EMS personnel had not located the driver and could not get close enough to the scene to determine whether any other vehicles were involved late Saturday night.

Many people stopped their cars and pedestrians lined up to observe the dramatic scene as the fire burned on an embankment near railroad tracks off Reserve Avenue.

The wreck closed all lanes of U.S. 220 indefinitely as of 11 p.m. The closure affected northbound lanes from the Wonju Street exit to the Elm Avenue exit and all southbound lanes from the Elm Avenue exit to the Franklin Road exit near Tanglewood Mall.

Susan Terpay, a spokeswoman for Norfolk Southern Corp., said that the tanker fell 10 feet outside of Norfolk Southern property.

Terpay said that none of the railroad's employees had been injured. She also said that the fire did not pose a hazardous materials risk and was not affecting railroad operations. She said crews were still trying to put the fire out as of 12:40 a.m. Sunday.

Prentest Cabbler was going to get a bite to eat on Franklin Road when he noticed the smoke.

A former Roanoke County volunteer firefighter, he parked his car on Reserve Avenue to check the scene. He gazed through a construction zone toward the railroad yard as dark gray smoke billowed into the night sky. Bystanders near him passed binoculars to get a better glimpse.

Cabbler said at first he thought the fire involved a train because it appeared to be on the tracks, then he heard about the tanker.