Flames shoot into the air from propane tank on Long Island

BELLMORE, Long Island (WABC) -- A neighborhood on Long Island was told to shelter in place after flames shot high into the air from a propane tank.

The Island Greenery in Bellmore is normally filled with flowers and trees, not a steady stream of flames. On Monday afternoon, Laura Santos, who lives across the street, realized the propane tank at the nursery was leaking.

"So I called the fire department and I said, like, 'oh I don't know if this is normal, but this has never happened,'" Santos said.

"It's my first time looking at fire, and I never saw fire and I was scared," said 6-year-old Zebish Suri.

Firefighters then discovered that propane was leaking, so they started burning off the gas to relieve the pressure while hosing off the area.

"First we thought the senior citizen center was on fire. But then I realized that the nursey next door has a thousand-gallon propane tank," said Wayne Tinucci.

Eyewitness News is told the tank was recently filled for the holiday weekend. Given all the rain, they did not sell much propane - then came Monday's warmer weather. Officials explain it caused the gas to expand, which then triggered the self-venting system to start releasing propane.

There were no injuries, and fire officials were able to avoid an explosion.