The fire and explosions were so hot they melted part of Kansas Highway 32 northeast of Lawrence.

So crews will be busy today repairing the roadway where a tanker truck’s load of more than 1,400 gallons of diesel fuel and oil ignited Tuesday morning, sending black plumes and fireballs into the sky and startling onlookers as far away as downtown Lawrence.

No one was hurt in the blaze that firefighters began battling about 10 a.m. For the first hour, they fought the inferno with a single hose.

“Basically right now we don’t have enough water,” Maj. Ken McGovern of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said as firefighters struggled to contain the fire.

For three hours, emergency crews made six-mile round trips to Lawrence to haul enough water to control the blaze, which was about two miles east of Lawrence Municipal Airport in the westbound lane of Kansas Highway 32. The fire was near the Douglas-Leavenworth county line, just east of the junction of K-32 and U.S. Highway 24-40.

Balls of flame rocketed 50 feet into the air, smoke billowed hundreds of feet, and fire from the truck, which was stopped about 25 yards from a natural gas pipeline, ignited weeds and grass in nearby ditches.

Emergency crews from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Leavenworth County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Highway Patrol, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical and Wakarusa Township Fire and Rescue worked to control both the fire and traffic.

Kansas 32 was closed as sheriff’s officers re-routed traffic around the intersection until the fire was extinguished.

Douglas County Fire & Medical crews battle a fire in a fuel truck just west of the Douglas County line near the junction of Kansas Highway 32 and U.S. Highway 24-40. The truck was carrying more than 1,400 gallons of diesel fuel Tuesday when the driver noticed smoke in the cab and escaped.

Crews were called to the blaze at 9:56 a.m., said Mark Bradford, deputy chief of Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical.

About three hours later, most of the fuel the truck was hauling had been consumed. Firefighters extinguished the final embers with foam about 12:45 p.m., Bradford said.

The rig’s driver, Richard Kramer, McLouth, said he pulled over when he saw flames and smoke began filling the cab of the 1995 Peterbilt fuel and lube truck he was driving for King’s Construction Co. Inc. of Oskaloosa. Witnesses said the truck began losing its load east of the junction with U.S. 24-40.

Richard Kramer, a truck driver for King's Construction Co., Oskaloosa, is comforted by a firefighter after the truck Kramer was driving exploded. Kramer escaped Tuesday's inferno without injury, although the heat of the fire damaged part of Kansas Highway 32 near its junction with U.S. Highway 24-40 northeast of Lawrence.

Kramer was able to escape the truck, dial 911 and watch in shock as the rig was consumed. Though shaken, he was uninjured. But the $120,000 truck the company has owned since last year was a total loss, said Jennifer Best, the company’s office manager. Kramer was returning to Oskaloosa from Eudora.

Best said the truck recently passed Kansas Highway Patrol inspections.

6News video: Tanker truck destroyed in fire northeast of Lawrence (07-13-04)

Kansas Department of Transportation officials said one lane of K-32 would be closed today to allow construction crews to repair and replace the roadway.