welve hours after one of his drivers lost control of a tanker truck carrying thousands of gallons of gasoline, sparking a Wednesday morning fire in Everett, Mass., that burned homes and cars, Curtis Marston was hoarse from being “up all night.”

A partner in North Hampton’s P.S. Marston Associates with his brother, Paul, Curtis said nothing like this has happened since the company was founded by his father, Paul Sr., in 1973. A report later in the day from WCVB-TV of Boston cited past problems for the North Hampton company, also known as Abenaqui Carriers, as well as Dover resident Chad LaFrance, the employee driving the tanker.

Wednesday’s accident spilled 9,400 gallons of burning fuel into a sleeping community. Witnesses said a 10-foot wall of flame flowed through the neighborhood below a traffic circle where the tanker flipped, blowing up cars and destroying two triple-decker, multifamily homes. Nearby residents were hastily evacuated, including about 84 residents of an elderly housing complex and 10 to 12 families that lost their homes in the fire. No one was seriously injured.