Thousands of eastside Salt Lake residents within a half-mile radius of a semitrailer-tanker crash on I-80 at the I-215 interchange were evacuated from their homes until late Friday because of a propane leak.

Traffic around Parleys Canyon also was shut down for several hours after the 1:30 p.m. rollover because of the danger, creating a traffic nightmare for the evening commute.

"It just sounded like an explosion and we felt the house shake. It felt like something really heavy fell from the sky. We thought our deck had fallen off," said Vincent Liu, who looked out into his backyard and saw the crash.

A sheriff's deputy knocked on his door and told him to evacuate.

Hazardous materials teams doused the leaking propane with water in an effort to ensure that a spark didn't trigger an explosion.

The evacuation order was lifted at about 10:30 p.m., said Capt. Wade Russell of the Unified Fire Authority.

After bleeding the remaining propane from the damaged tanker, crews were able to remove it from the roadway just before 11 p.m., UHP Sgt. Jeff Nigbur said.

He said authorities hoped to reopen the roadway by 12:30 a.m.

The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said it evacuated about 8,000 people from 2900 South to 3200 South and from 2900 East to 3900 East.

The American Red Cross set up a temporary shelter at Skyline High School. A pizza dinner was provided and cots were being set up for people who may have decided to spend the night.

Theater students at Skyline were putting on "Beauty and the Beast" and the school's principal invited evacuees to attend the show for free. At about 9 p.m., the American Red Cross reported about 40 people were planning to spend the night at Skyline.

Nigbur said authorities believe the driver was turning from I-80 to I-215 too fast and rolled it. The semi and a tanker rolled, smashing through a sound wall. The pup trailer remained standing, but propane was seen leaking from the tanker.

Firefighters had to extricate the driver who was taken to a local hospital with reportedly minor injuries. Nigbur said he was good condition and suffered a bump on the head.

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Contributing: Ben Winslow and Clayton Norlen

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E-mail: ethomas@desnews.com