Flames reached 100 feet into the air and thick black smoke billowed across Manheim Township Tuesday night after gasoline leaking from a supply line was apparently touched off by a spark from a nearby pickup truck.

Firefighters and hazardous material crews worked through the night to extinguish the blaze, which caused no injuries.

Heavy smoke was visible across central Lancaster County, and the massive flames damaged power lines and four vehicles at the ExxonMobil pumping station, 2810 Weaver Road.

A four-member crew of workers from ExxonMobil, which owns the gasoline pipeline, Terra Environmental Corp. of Malvern and Lewis Environmental Group of Royersford was working on a pipe at 5:20 p.m. when it started to spew gasoline.

The workers ran from the pumping station seconds before the gasoline ignited and set off a series of explosions, said James J. Wolfe, a spokesman for the Lancaster County Firemen's Association.

"The gasoline contacted a pickup truck which was left running," Wolf said. "The crew was able to get away before the fire started and all the explosions damaged was a mailbox."

The leak sprung as the crew was finishing a maintenance project on the line. A worker was adjusting a pipe while attempting to get the pumping station back into operation.

The crew had worked at the station all day and was preparing to wrap up at 5:30 p.m., according to Ron Emry, a ExxonMobil public affairs adviser.

Conventional unleaded gasoline, which is typically used to fuel vehicles, flowed from the broken pipe onto Weaver Road, where the pickup was parked, Emry said.

An ExxonMobil employee called 911 and met Michael Elliott, Neffsville Community Fire Company deputy chief, when the first wave of firefighters arrived shortly before 5:30 p.m.

"It was a raging fireball," Elliott said. "When we learned it was a gasoline leak, our first thought was to get the pipeline shut off."

The underground pipeline stretches from Malvern to Harrisburg. Two shutoff valves are located 8 miles apart on each side of the pumping station. It took ExxonMobil about 20 minutes to reach the valves, Elliott said.

After the valves were turned off, more than 20,000 gallons of gasoline caught in the pipeline flowed to the pumping station, keeping the fire burning past midnight.

About 150 firefighters from more than 25 fire companies rotated crews from the perimeter of the fire, where temperatures reached about 800 degrees.

The height of the flames fluctuated from about 10 to 100 feet. The flames were barely visible around midnight.

A small crew of firefighters planned to monitor the fire throughout the night. An ExxonMobil crew was scheduled to arrive this morning to evaluate the damage.