Marine
01-16-2007, 3:20pm
ZONETON, Ky., Jan 16 (Reuters) - An 80-car CSX freight train derailed in Kentucky on Tuesday, sending 11 people to hospital and prompting evacuations when hazardous chemicals aboard caught fire and belched clouds of smoke, authorities said.
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher said there were "no significant injuries and certainly no fatalities."
Emergency officials said the danger of an explosion appeared to have passed and the smoke was being carried up and away rather than spreading into populated areas. They planned to let the fire burn itself out but could not estimate how long that might take.
The cause of the derailment, which occurred just before 9:00 a.m. EST about 30 miles (50 km) south of Louisville, was not yet known. Nearby housing subdivisions were evacuated and police closed stretches of three local highways.
Twenty cars in the center of the train bound for Birmingham, Alabama, from Louisville derailed, and 12 of those were carrying hazardous materials, CSX Corp. (CSX.N: Quote, Profile , Research) spokesman Garrick Francis said.
One local official, however, said that only three cars with volatile chemicals were in the section of the train that burned, and it was not believed there would be a severe environmental impact from those substances.
The railroad said four cars involved in the derailment carried butadiene, a potential carcinogen that can affect the nervous system at high doses. One car contained chlorine residue. Another carried methyl ethyl ketone, or butanone, an industrial solvent that can irritate the nose, throat, skin and eyes and which can also be dangerous at high doses.
A 23-mile (37-km) stretch of Interstate 65 was closed, along with two local highways.
People in the area were told to stay inside, said Buddy Rogers of Kentucky's Office of Emergency Management, and students at one elementary school not far away were sent to another school as a precaution.
It was the second accident involving CSX trains in Kentucky in two days.
On Monday, four rail cars in central Kentucky broke free and traveled for miles before slamming into the abandoned locomotive from which the crew had been ordered off. One of the cars carried butyl acetate, a chemical used in paper coatings, plastics and perfumes, which erupted in flames. A few families were evacuated but no one was hurt. (Additional reporting by Nick Carey in Chicago and John Summers in Brooks)
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&symbol=&storyID=2007-01-16T185959Z_01_N16209615_RTRIDST_0_USA-TRAIN-DERAILS-UPDATE-3-PICTURE.XML&pageNumber=1&WTModLoc=InvArt-C1-ArticlePage1&sz=13
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher said there were "no significant injuries and certainly no fatalities."
Emergency officials said the danger of an explosion appeared to have passed and the smoke was being carried up and away rather than spreading into populated areas. They planned to let the fire burn itself out but could not estimate how long that might take.
The cause of the derailment, which occurred just before 9:00 a.m. EST about 30 miles (50 km) south of Louisville, was not yet known. Nearby housing subdivisions were evacuated and police closed stretches of three local highways.
Twenty cars in the center of the train bound for Birmingham, Alabama, from Louisville derailed, and 12 of those were carrying hazardous materials, CSX Corp. (CSX.N: Quote, Profile , Research) spokesman Garrick Francis said.
One local official, however, said that only three cars with volatile chemicals were in the section of the train that burned, and it was not believed there would be a severe environmental impact from those substances.
The railroad said four cars involved in the derailment carried butadiene, a potential carcinogen that can affect the nervous system at high doses. One car contained chlorine residue. Another carried methyl ethyl ketone, or butanone, an industrial solvent that can irritate the nose, throat, skin and eyes and which can also be dangerous at high doses.
A 23-mile (37-km) stretch of Interstate 65 was closed, along with two local highways.
People in the area were told to stay inside, said Buddy Rogers of Kentucky's Office of Emergency Management, and students at one elementary school not far away were sent to another school as a precaution.
It was the second accident involving CSX trains in Kentucky in two days.
On Monday, four rail cars in central Kentucky broke free and traveled for miles before slamming into the abandoned locomotive from which the crew had been ordered off. One of the cars carried butyl acetate, a chemical used in paper coatings, plastics and perfumes, which erupted in flames. A few families were evacuated but no one was hurt. (Additional reporting by Nick Carey in Chicago and John Summers in Brooks)
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&symbol=&storyID=2007-01-16T185959Z_01_N16209615_RTRIDST_0_USA-TRAIN-DERAILS-UPDATE-3-PICTURE.XML&pageNumber=1&WTModLoc=InvArt-C1-ArticlePage1&sz=13