by TATIANA DELIGIANNAKIS and NEIL GRAVES
A driver was burned to death yesterday after his oil tanker overturned off the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens and exploded in flames.
Nearly 300 firefighters responded to the 12:14 p.m. blaze on the North Conduit Avenue exit ramp just north of Kennedy Airport. The fire raged for two hours and tied up traffic for more than six hours.
Police did not know where the tanker, with a 9,000-gallon payload, had been heading or the name of the company that owned it.
The victim was not immediately identified.
Several hours after the accident, firefighters still could not approach the cabin to extract the body because the smoldering truck was too hot. The billowing black smoke could be seen for miles away.
The state Department of Transportation closed the exit ramp and was inspecting it to see whether it had been damaged too severely to be reopened.
There was no immediate word on when it would be back in use.
Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan
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