a train carrying propylene, a highly flammable petrochemical used in manufacturing, blows up in texarkanaarkansas, early in the morning, october 15th, 2005. a police car's dashboard camera captures the massive explosion. with no time to turn around, the officer throws his car into reverse and races backwards to escape the growing river of fire coming right at him. >> it was quite massive. just as far as you could see, just nothing but flames. >> the disaster starts when officer randy mcadams is finishing up the night shift. a moving freight train hits a parked train at the texarkana depot, causing a derailment but not an explosion. >> could you call back and see if they can ascertain exactly which car is overturned and maybe what the contents of the car was? >> it's not like a regular car accident. it can be thousands of gallons of very toxic chemicals up to maybe nothing leaking at all. kind of have to get there and investigate and determine what's going on. >> officer mcadams is one of the first on the scene. >> i've got some kind of chemical smell. i'm backing up. it's slowly drifted f

the chemical cloud was actually following me, circling me up, so i retreated back. >> the texarkana fire department also responds, but battalion chief rick pavick doesn't see the vapor cloud. he's taken completely by surprise when the gas finds an ignition source and erupts 500 feet away. >> it was real crazy. it was amazing, is what it was, just to be that close to something that large and watch it spread out. >> when the gas ignites, officer mcadams' dash cam records the initial sound, but the explosion is out of view. >> the texarkana police dispatcher has a clear view of the train tracks and radios officer mcadams. >> we just had a huge explosion. we've got massive fire out here. all kinds of stuff on fire. >> as officer mcadams starts backing up, the flames race down the track and into the camera's view as the gas explodes over and over again. >> anywhere that vapor from the chemicals had gone just burned, whether it was on the ground, in the air. just nothing but a ball of fire and like a big fuse, it just kept going further and further. >> it was a big mushroom shaped fireball. it

and so i called it texarkana to the clerk and said hello, my name is will hager. i just spent five years writing this book about thurgood marshall's battle be confirmed on to the us supreme court. in the book i quote a letter from a one time resident of texarkana by the name of barbara ross. my book will be out there shortly, i told her this was like six of months ago and i said, is there any way i can find an error, any relative that this miss barbara ross might have in texarkana and the city clerk said, the name doesn't ring a bell but let me ask around and i'll get back to you and so in about five or six days she called back, left a voice message on my landline phone and said esther hager, you should call this number. when somebody says that to a journalist, you really get more than a little excited. i dialed the number and this voice answered and said hello and i said, i'm am. my name is will hager. i just written a book called showdown about thurgood marshall's 1967 confirmation hearing and i quote a letter by a lady named barbara ross and somebody over at th

barbara ross might have in texarkana? the city clerk said, well, the name doesn't ring a bell, but let me ask around, and i'll get back to you. and so in about five to six days she called back, left a voice message on my landline phone and said, mr. haygood, you should call this number. and, of course, when somebody says that to a journalist, you know, you really get -- a little, more than a little excited. so i dialed the number. and this voice answered and just said, "hello." and i said, hi, ma'am, my name is wil haygood.nd i've just written a book calledy "showdown" about thurgood marshall's 1967 confirmation hearing, and i quote a letter by a lady named barbara ross, and somebody over at the texarkana city clerk's office told me to call this number because i'm trying to find any family members of mrs. ross so i can tell them that this letter is in the book. and she says, my name is barbara ross. and i'm sort of taken aback. and i said, oh, really? huh.am were you named after her or something? and she said, sweetie, i

and so i thought deeply about it, and the letter had an address. 2103 delware street, texas texarkana, arkansas, and i called the city clerk and said, my name is will hay goode. i just wrote a book about thurgood marshall's battle to be on the supreme court in the book i quote a letter from one--time resident by the name of barbara ross. my book will be out very shortly; i told her -- this was like six months ago -- and i said there is any way i can find an heir, any relative that this miss barbara ross might have in texarkana. the city clerk says the name doesn't ring a bell. let me ask around and i'll get back to you. and so in about five to six days she called back, left a voice message on my landline phone and said, mr. hey haygood call this number. and when somebody says that to a journalist, you really get more than also excited. so i dialed the number, and this voice answered and just said, hello, and i said, hi, ma'am. my name is wil haygood. i just wrote a book about thurgood marshall's 1967 confirmation hearings, and i quote a letter by a lady named barbara ross. and somebod

right around texarkana through tulsa and areas of western arkansas. think that is the red zone for the threat for long-track tornadoes and possibly some large hail. so we'll be keeping an eye out. again, this is later on this afternoon. this morning, you're fine. otherwise we look at a lot of rain on the radar here. look at nebraska through areas of northwestern iowa. and over the next couple of days, we're going to see a lot of rain in this part of the country. we could see up to two or three inches of rain. so it's all or nothing in this kind of weather pattern. meanwhile, in the northeast and the west coast, lots to like about this weather. we're talking about sunshine, comfortable temperatures. again, the middle part of the country, the worst. but the coasts looking good. >> good weather. it's like bookends. >> got to love it. >> thanks so much for that. >>> the man accused of killing three people in a two-day shooting spree in washington is set to appear in court today. a federal security officer faces numerous charges. he's alleged to have fatal

this area in orange that includes texarkana and shreveport, little rock, arkansas and southeast oklahoma where we could end up with stronger storms today. biggest threat will be large hail, damaging wind gusts and isolated tornados. even though this is the area we could see our best chance of tornados it's the yellow area again includes oklahoma city where we still could see stronger storms and the dangerous lightning. it's going to be active and tomorrow. >> that's a huge band of the country. >> right in that tornado alley. >> thank you very much. >>> firefighters hoping to gain the upper happened this week on the massive wild fire burning in alberta. the pictures are staggering burning almost 400,000 acres, ravaging the city of fort mcmurray. officials say with cooler temperatures expected the next few days, firefighters should be able to put out some of the hot spots. one member of parliament says he toured fort mcmurray and 80% of the homes are standing. >> to north korea, a journalest expelled over his reporting there. bill neely is there this morning. good morning. >> reporter: goo

dallas, weather towards the west and tyler and longview and back to texarkana. there's the storm setting up, moving farther to the east tomorrow. maybe a couple, a dozen, maybe half a dozen. all you need in your neighborhood is one to ruin your day. back to the video here, because i want to point out a couple of things what we tall a stove pipe tornado. straight up and down, likely somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 to maybe 150 miles per hour inside that vortex. the weather service will be back out there looking at that today to see how much damage was done to substantial buildings. that's how they figure out how high the winds were to knock down a brick structure, and you throw those bricks so many feet or yards or in cases miles, then they know how big the storm is. now back to my map and show you how the storm look and radar, because this is such a classic setup i think you should see it. here's what it looks like on radar. this is the hail core of the storm. there's elmore city as the storm tracked all the way across towards roth. always look for, if look