1,000 Evacuated After Freight Train Derails

A freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in the middle of town Sunday and authorities evacuated as many as 1,000 people in a three-mile area. Leaking chemicals caused a fire that was extinguished by afternoon.

No injuries were reported after 16 cars of a northbound Illinois Central-Canadian National train derailed during the morning, authorities said.

“It sounded like a [car] wreck, but I didn’t pay attention to it,” said Nina Rich, 74, who was at home when the train derailed and who later was evacuated.

Officials expected residents, including nearly everyone in this town of about 800 people, would be out of their homes until at least today while cleanup crews worked to stabilize the chemicals and then right the derailed cars.

“There’s nothing you can do about it, so it’s not worth getting upset about,” said evacuee Elizabeth Stein.

Residents up to three miles from the scene were evacuated because the train was carrying vinyl chloride, formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid, said Perry County Sheriff Keith Kellerman said. “Those are the three chemicals we can identify now,” he said.

All three chemicals are hazardous to breathe and could cause death in high concentrations, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many emergency workers were kept away from the trains because of the danger, Kellerman said.

Vinyl chloride leaked from one or two cars and caught fire, said Kellerman and Canadian National spokesman Jack Burke. Tamaroa village trustee William Place said methanol also was being carried by the train and caught fire. The fire was out by late afternoon.

The train, operated by a two-person crew, likely had 100 or more cars, Burke said. He added that chemical-hauling trains typically roll north from Louisiana to Chicago or to a switching point in Effingham for movement elsewhere. Each car carried 24,000 pounds of chemicals.

Air tests conducted upwind of the site indicated no pollution, said Chris Cahnovsky, an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency field worker. He added that crews would be checking for possible soil and groundwater contamination.

Tamaroa is 28 miles north of Carbondale in southern Illinois.