SAVANNAH - One worker is dead after a fuel tanker burst into flames at a petroleum distribution plant near the Port of Savannah.

Fire officials said they extinguished the blaze quickly after it broke out Friday afternoon at Colonial Oil in Savannah.

But company vice president Bill Baker said at a news conference that one employee was killed as he was filling the tanker with toluene, a chemical found in some gasolines. Something sparked and ignited the chemical.

Baker says two other employees suffered minor injuries. He says the fire was the first major accident in the company's 90-year history in Savannah.