Massive 50-car train derailment causes inferno and the spillage of hazardous ... trends now
The derailment of a cargo train triggered a huge fire and the spillage of hazardous chemicals, forcing the evacuation of 2,000 people from their homes in a nearby village in Ohio.
The fireball and release of chemicals, including vinyl chloride, happened after around 50 cars of a 140-car freight train derailed from their tracks at around 9pm on Friday.
No injuries or fatalities were reported after the crash, which left a smoldering tangle of chemicals, smoke and fire. It occurred near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border by the village of East Palestine.
The Norfolk Southern train was shipping cargo from Madison in Illinois to Conway in Pennsylvania when it derailed.
Despite an initial effort to extinguish the blaze, firefighters withdrew from the immediate area on Saturday as fears of toxic gases grew. Cars were still burning on Sunday afternoon, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said during a news conference.
The derailment of a cargo train triggered a huge fire and the spillage of hazardous chemicals, forcing the evacuation of 2,000 people from their homes near a village in Ohio
The fireball and release of small amounts of vinyl chloride happened after around 50-cars of a 140-car freight train derailed from their tracks at around 9pm on Friday
'It got to the point where we needed to pull back and let the safety features of the cars themselves handle the situation,' Drabick said.
Unmanned devices were then used protectively while crews tried to determine which cars were still on fire.
'I can't stress enough that if you're in the evacuation zone, you need to leave,' the village mayor Trent Conaway said at the news conference on Sunday. Air quality
