TRUCK RAMS CAPITOL LAWMAKERS EVACUATED AMID `FIREBALL' OF FLAMES.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

SACRAMENTO - A truck hauling two trailers crashed into the state Capitol and burst on fire late Tuesday just as the Assembly was clearing out after an evening session. The driver died at the scene.

No one else appeared injured. A bomb squad was probing whether there was an explosive device on board, and investigators are treating it as a criminal case, California Highway Patrol Officer David Brunelle said.

Smoke and flames billowed from the truck, which was rammed up the south Capitol steps and nestled below the state Senate chambers with the rear of one trailer sticking out. The Senate was not in session; the Assembly was just adjourning on the north end of the building.

There were scorch marks on the building, but it did not appear to be on fire. The governor was not in the building, spokesman Steve Maviglio said.

The man driving the truck honked his horn and roared down the street going about 70 mph before the big rig crashed into the Capitol's south doors, said Assembly staffer Matt Z'Berg, who was walking down the street away from the Capitol.

``He came all the way down here blaring his horn,'' Z'Berg said.

The truck struck the building with a ``humongous fireball effect,'' he said, adding that he did not see anyone get out of the truck.

The double-trailer truck belonged to Dick Simon Trucking Inc. of West Valley City, Utah, said Mike Houskeeper, a claims examiner with the company.

Houskeeper said the company did not know who was driving the truck and was working to determine that. The refrigerated truck normally carries food, but it was not immediately known what it was carrying Tuesday, he said.

The driver who normally has the truck made a scheduled delivery earlier Tuesday outside of California and was not scheduled to make another stop Tuesday night, Houskeeper said. He declined to say where the scheduled delivery was made.

Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg quoted law enforcement and witnesses as saying the truck was loaded with powdered milk and drove around the Capitol block several times, then barreled down the two-way 11th Street, which runs along the Capitol, and smashed into the building.

``Beyond that we don't know anything,'' said Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys. ``I don't know what was in his mind.''

Hertzberg helped direct people away from the crash site.

His spokesman, Paul Hefner, said ``everyone feels really distressed. This was really a blow to everybody.''

``There was shock and disbelief,'' Assemblyman Tony Cardenas said in an interview with the Daily News.

Cardenas, D-Mission Hills, said the Assembly members saw mammoth flames erupt from the side of the building. ``We were praying no one got hurt or killed,'' he said. ``We're OK, thank God.''

Assemblyman Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, said this should draw attention to safety issues at the Capitol.

``I think it points to the fact that we need to pay more attention to the security,'' he said.

``We all know what can happen. We saw it happen in Oklahoma City,'' Hollingsworth said.

Motorist Michael Fahn didn't see the truck ram into the building but heard several explosions.

``I thought, My God, they are bombing the Capitol,'' said Fahn of Sacramento.

The CHP ordered the Capitol evacuated shortly before 9:30 p.m., just as the Assembly was adjourning for the night. A building siren blared in the Assembly chambers.

A state trooper moved through the Assembly telling lawmakers to get out because a big rig had crashed into the building.

Dozens of lawmakers and aides rushed from the building and watched stunned as firefighters fought the blaze.

``It's almost unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable,'' said Assemblyman Carl Washington, D-Los Angeles.

There are security gates at a driveway leading into a basement parking lot at the Capitol, but no gate around the building.

Lawmakers will consider heightening security after Tuesday's crash, Hertzberg said.

``It was really scary, it's scary right now,'' he said. ``It's scary to see the Capitol looking like that.''

The Capitol ramp security system includes sophisticated steel barriers at the ramps to the underground garage that spring up from the pavement at the approach of unauthorized vehicles.

Last June, then-Assembly Minority Leader Scott Baugh was knocked unconscious when a car in which he was a passenger struck the barrier as it was entering the Capitol garage.

Baugh, R-Huntington Beach, was hospitalized with a sore neck.

The security barrier was apparently triggered by a vehicle following Baugh's car, which was driven by Baugh's deputy chief of staff.

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Photo: (color) A firefighter extinguishes flames at the rear of a tractor- trailer that crashed into the south entrance of the California State Capitol on Tuesday night. The driver died at the scene. The Assembly was just adjourning. The Senate was not in session.

Bryan Patrick/The Sacramento Bee