PARALLEL SPARKING

Leaking gas tank sets Midtown block ablaze

Seven cars burst into flames on a Midtown street Friday when a stream of gasoline leaking from a plumber’s van caught on fire and torched the block, police and witnesses said.

The van, manned by an unlicensed driver from Gold’s Plumbing Corp. in Queens, was parked on East 58th Street between First and Second avenues when it exploded and ignited other vehicles at about 9 a.m., according to police.

“It looked like Vietnam when they dropped napalm — about 40 yards down of gas burning, smoke and flames,” said neighbor Mike McNenny, 52. “I’ve never seen nothing like that.”

The blaze destroyed a BMW X1, a truck, two minivans and other cars, leaving smoldering hunks of metal, cops and witnesses said.

The driver, Joseph Duchatellier, of Allentown, Pa., told cops the van first started smoking as he crossed the Ed Koch/59th Street Bridge. He pulled over to check on it but, as he fumbled under the hood, a stream of gas trickled down the street toward a row of parked cars.

The van then burst into flames, and the blaze spread along the trail of gas.

“[It was] explosion after explosion, one after the other — little booms,” said George Ivan, 65, a doorman who works nearby. “It was a little bit of a disaster here.”

Jordyn Norman, who lives on the block, added, “I was in my apartment, and I heard a very loud explosion.”

“When I looked out my window, I saw clouds of black smoke,” she said. “The one van was completely ablaze, the flames were roaring.”

Duchatellier was arrested for driving without a license and questioned by police, cops said.

It took firefighters 30 minutes to get the flames under control. Nobody was injured.

“For a minute I thought they were filming something,” said neighbor Julie Simons, 38, who was walking her dog when she heard a loud boom. “Cars can just blow up like that? It’s a scary thought.”

A manager for Gold’s Plumbing Corp., which owns the van, said a mechanic is looking into what went wrong.

“We think the engine was probably clogged and the gas tank leaked out,” the manager said.

“Everything is under investigation.”

A cellphone video, shot by McNenny, shows the van’s rear tires and the back of another car catching fire while firefighters spray them with a hose.