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The Nation - News from Dec. 27, 1987

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Families within a one-mile area of the site near Marshall, in East Texas, were ordered evacuated when an 18-car freight train derailed, sparking explosions and fires on chemical cars. Four crewmen, believed to be the only people aboard the train, were injured and taken to Marshall Memorial Hospital. The Union Pacific Railroad train’s derailment sparked a blast that shot flames up to 300 feet into the air, and several trees in the wooded area caught fire. Chemicals, including denatured alcohol, propanol and ethyl hexanol, had been loaded onto the train at Texas Eastman’s Longview petrochemical plant.

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