New Haiti disaster: Fireball from toppled tanker kills 75

Nelly Joseph picked through the twisted metal roofing, overturned furnishings and rubble of her charred home, unsure of where her dead son had been buried or where she would sleep after blasts from a flipped gas tanker destroyed their house

CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti -- Nelly Joseph picked through the twisted metal roofing, overturned furnishings and rubble of her charred home Wednesday, unsure of where her dead son had been buried or where she would sleep after blasts from a flipped gas tanker destroyed their house.

Late Monday night, Joseph heard a loud noise and got out of bed. She heard people saying a gas truck had crashed, so she grabbed her identification card and went out to join them. With fuel in short supply all across Haiti, some neighbors in the northern city of Cap-Haitien saw a chance to scoop up valuable spilled gasoline.

Then the first explosions occurred. Her son Josue Junior Julemis, 36, hustled two of his children to safety. Then he returned to get his identification card from their home.

That’s when a much stronger explosion destroyed the three-room house they shared, blackening its walls and blowing off the roof.