Propane Tankers Burn After Trains Collide in Norway

Fears that burning propane tankers from a train wreck could explode prompted police on Wednesday to evacuate more than 2,000 people from the center of a small Norwegian city.

Two freight trains collided and caught fire about 1 a.m. Wednesday at the Lillestrom train station, about 10 miles east of Oslo, the capital.

Both trains had automatic stopping systems that should have prevented a collision.

However, one train’s brakes apparently failed on a downhill grade into the station, Arne Tordhol of the national railroad’s freight division said.

No one was injured, but police evacuated an 800-yard area around the trains because they feared that the cargo of about 90 tons of propane gas in two cars could explode.

Citing experts, newspapers said that if the tanks were half-full, an explosion would last 14 seconds and cause a fireball reaching up to 200 feet from the cars.

It could take days before people will be allowed to return to homes, schools, businesses and a medical clinic because fire experts say gas leaking from one or both cars must be allowed to slowly burn off.

“The best thing that could have happened was that it started to burn,” said Tore Dahlbo, of the Norwegian Directorate for Fire and Explosion Prevention. He said if unburned gas had spread, the slightest spark could have caused a huge explosion.

Firefighters were using a remote-controlled water cannon to pump thousands of gallons per minute onto the tank cars to cool them without dousing the flames.