Dozens of vehicles were damaged in 22 crashes that left more than 50 injured near Beaumont in Jefferson County.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said the first crash happened on Highway 73 near the Veolia plant shortly before 5:30 a.m. Thursday and started a chain-reaction pileup. Officials said 79 vehicles were involved.

Emergency crews said two cars were on fire when they arrived on the scene. A tanker-truck was overturned.

State troopers said there ended up being 22 separate crashes on the road.

Chief Charles Sonnier with Labelle-Fannett Fire Department told KBMT that four people had to be rescued using the Jaws of Life. At least 54 people were taken to Beaumont hospitals with injuries. Four victims were listed in critical condition, but investigators said their injuries were non-life-threatening.

"(Victims had) everything from broken bones to abrasions to whiplash," said Rod Carroll with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.

One man had a heart attack at the scene.

All 20 ambulances in the area went to the scene to transport patients. However, officials ran out of ambulances and began transporting victims on shuttle buses with a paramedic on board. Life Flight helicopter was also used for patients.

Hospitals in the area were put on mass casualty alert.

Investigators said some of the cars did not leave skid marks, indicating that the drivers did not see the stopped vehicles until they crashed.

"I was driving straight down this road and all of a sudden … just smoke," driver Jesus Gonzalez said. "A wall of fog. Flying objects, a little bit of everything. We heard loud crashing behind us, loud crashing in front of us and everywhere else but us."

Gonzalez and his friends were not hurt. They jumped out of their car and started helping others. They saw one car catch fire and another leaking fuel. They carried two people to safety.

"We carried them to the truck," Basilio Renovato said. "They had a gas leak in their car, so we definitely had to get them out."

Officials said zero visibility in the area because of fog and smoke from marsh wildfires led to the accident.

"A fog rolled in with the smoke from the marsh fires. Talking to people involved in the accident, there was zero visibility. The accident was spread over a three-quarter to a mile area of chain-reaction accidents," Carroll said.

Some of the vehicles were traveling up to 70 mph before they wrecked.

More than dozen other vehicles skidded off into the median but did not hit anything, officials said.

Many of the victims were shift-workers at the nearby water treatment plant, according to authorities.

"Thank God it was before the school buses started running," Carroll said.

Donnie Simmons commutes along the highway from Seabrook every day to get to the Motiva plant. He was in the second car in the pileup.

"We saw taillights of a car stopped ... nowhere to go except right into her," he said.

Simmons' head smashed into the dash in front of him.

"Sore and that's it, sore," Simmons said.