The Pacific Highway on the New South Wales north coast will be closed until New Year's Day while crews clear a fuel tanker that exploded and killed the driver.

The tanker hauling 40,000 litres of fuel overturned and exploded on what is regarded by truckies as a notorious stretch of the highway, near Tintenbar, 10 kilometres north of Ballina.

Authorities have set up a one-kilometre exclusion zone around the burning tanker and more than 100 firefighters equipped with breathing apparatus were sent to the scene.

The ambulance service says the truck driver was killed in the blast, while two people have been freed from a nearby car after being trapped when powerlines came down on their vehicle.

The second trailer of the B-double was thrown into a paddock where it leaked fuel into a nearby wetland, and police still cannot get to the cabin of the burnt truck where the driver's body remains inside.

Another tanker driver, Gary, says the driver is one of their own but they do not know who.

"It is sad to be holed up on the side of the road like this. And it's sad for a driver that's not going to go home to his family," he said.

The truck was laden with diesel and unleaded fuel, which has now been mostly contained.

Police say they will not be able to assess the damaged road until the scorched truck is moved, but they expect the Pacific Highway to be closed for the rest of today.

Six other trucks are banked up behind the accident site unable to turn around.

The RTA says cars should avoid the highway and use Bangalow Road, with traffic diversion now in place.

Heavy vehicles are being advised to use the New England Highway or Summerland Way.