Truck explodes after catching fire in NYC as news crew records video, witnesses said 911 calls went unanswered

Law enforcement authorities are investigating a bizarre explosion caught on video Wednesday as a news crew looked on in New York City.

The incident unfolded at about 1 p.m. on Vernon Blvd. and 47th Avenue in Long Island City in Queens when a pothole repair crew on lunch noted that the truck had begun smoking.

One witness said a transportation worker tried to use a fire extinguisher to put out the truck after it caught fire.

Video then showed emergency personnel trying to get people to evacuate from businesses in the area as the truck burned.

WNBC-TV captured video of the explosion on video and also obtained a second viewpoint of the explosion.

Witnesses said the force of the explosion was incredible.

Other witnesses reported that they had trouble calling in to 911 emergency services.

"I tried to call 911 and it was a busy signal," said witness Hilma Abiew. "I tried to call again, was a beep tone, and then the third time was a voicemail. Then I tried to send a text message, and the text message come back saying, 'Please send the location.' I send the address, and then was like, oh, servers are very busy right now."

"We tried calling," said Chris Misk, another witness, "and it just kept, it would ring and then it would say your call is going through to a message and it would sound like a fax machine, and then that was it."

A spokesperson for the police department told WNBC that there had been a high volume of emergency calls and that they were "actively working to improve services so wait times are rare."

No one was physically injured in the explosion, and the fire did not spread to any structures.

"Safety of our employees and others is a top priority and we will investigate today's truck fire," said a statement from the transportation department.

Here's the video captured by the news crew:

News crew witness truck explosion in Long Island City | NBC New Yorkwww.youtube.com

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