A fiery crash between a tractor-trailer unit and an SUV was so destructive that a witness to the carnage at first believed only one vehicle was involved.

"The cab and a good part of the trailer was completely engulfed," Donna Forseille, owner of McLeese Lake Resort, said Thursday.

"Everybody was talking about a second vehicle. I was right up beside that truck. If there was a second vehicle, there is nothing left of it."

RCMP Cpl. Madonna Saunderson said the collision occurred on Highway 97 near McLeese Lake, between Quesnel and Williams Lake, at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Five members of a family in a grey Kia Sorrento were killed. They include Matt Altizer, 40, his wife Leah and their two children, Jonathan, a Grade 8 student, Emily, a student in Grade 6, and adult family member Heather Kress.

Altizer was a systems manager with The Prince George Citizen. The Citizen reported that the family members were on their way to Vancouver to fulfil a lifelong dream of Altizer's — attending a Davis Cup tennis match.

The Citizen is a sister paper of The Daily News within the Glacier Media group of newspapers. Interim Citizen publisher Colleen Sparrow said, "We have not only lost a colleague but a great friend today. . . . Matt was a kind and gentle man who would go out of his way to help anyone, and patience was his hallmark."

The driver of the semi survived.

"We do know that the SUV crossed the centre line and collided with the semi," said Saunderson. "The crash resulted in a fire; we're not sure what sparked the fire; we do know that both vehicles were engulfed in flames."

Saunderson said an independent witness who was driving behind the SUV said there was no indication the driver of the SUV was driving erratically or irresponsibly.

"For whatever reasons that are unknown and probably won't be known, it (the SUV) crossed right over into the semi," she said.

Forseille and her two children were headed to Prince George for an appointment when they happened upon the fiery wreck. She estimates she missed the tragedy by five minutes.

She said there were several people standing on the side of Highway 97 with cellphones in hand. She stopped briefly before moving on.

"The truck looked like it had literally driven head on into the ditch. It was across the lane just like it had parked there," she said.

The highway closed for a time, but single-lane traffic was allowed to pass when she and her children drove home Thursday afternoon. Emergency crews were still on scene.

The roads were bare and dry and the sky was cloudy and overcast, said Saunderson.

"At this point, we don't have a cause."

Greg Foster, a local pub owner who is among a group of people trying to organize a volunteer fire department in McLeese Lake, said he heard about the crash while listening to a police scanner.

Foster said he jumped in his vehicle and drove to the scene, arriving at around 9:30 a.m., but he said emergency officials may have taken as long as 40 minutes to get there because the tiny town of 300 has no RCMP detachment or volunteer fire department.

He said debris was spread over an area of 55 to 65 metres, the semi was sprawled half onto the north-bound lane and half into a ditch and the SUV was invisible, either trapped under the semi or in front of the semi and out of view of passersby.

"The trailer had burned up," he said. "The truck was still on fire at that time, and like I say, the materials and that kind of stuff were just (scattered) all over the highway."

The air reeked of the smell of burning oil and tires, he added.

Brenda Tomporowski, an employee at the McLeese Lake general store, said the community doesn't have a fire department or police detachment. She said it probably took 40 minutes or more for police to arrive at the crash.

The tragedy came just a week after an Edmonton family of four was killed in a collision between their SUV and a transport truck on Highway 5 north of Barriere.