Gas Keeps 5,000 From Homes

A lethal plume of chlorine leaking from a shattered rail tanker car kept 5,000 residents of this mill town away from their homes and forced officials to bring in repair crews a day after a predawn train wreck and chemical spill killed eight people and sent scores to hospitals for treatment.

A rapid response by local emergency officials in the hours after two trains collided on Thursday morning helped evacuate hundreds of residents safely away from a “hot zone” of contamination.

But officials, unable to staunch the flow of chlorine from one rail car and worried about possible leaks from two other cars, continued to cordon off a mile radius around the now-deserted site. A salvage crew laid preparations to apply a steel patch to the ruptured tank car and to siphon off thousands of gallons of chemicals. The work could last three days to a week, officials said.

“We’ve not been able yet to get into the hot zone,” said Aiken County Coroner Tim Carlton, who confirmed Friday that autopsies performed on all eight of those who died after the collision showed that they had suffered from chlorine inhalation.

A 42-car freight train bound for Columbia, S.C., rammed into a parked locomotive, toppling 17 rail cars and releasing a plume of poisonous chlorine that spread like fog, overcoming dozens of workers from a nearby mill.

The freight train’s engineer, identified as Christopher Seeling, 28, of West Columbia, S.C., was hurt in the crash but was killed by the gas, officials said. Panicked workers at the Avondale Mills textile plant rushed outside and several died on the spot. More than 240 people sought hospital care for respiratory and other ailments. Most were later released. Emergency workers reported seeing carcasses of dogs and other animals. Chlorine also leached into a nearby creek, killing hundreds of fish, officials said.

Emergency officials said Friday that they were able to move quickly to the collision scene, aided by practice drills and heightened planning since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But even with protective gear, three firefighters were overcome and one of them was in critical condition, officials said.

“I think it worked as well as we could have hoped,” said Greg Bailey, shift manager for Aiken County Emergency Medical Services.

But the chaos and reactions of people unaware of the danger complicated the rescue work. Hours after the collision, gawkers strolled or drove up to the collision site until ordered out by police.

Lt. Michael Frank, spokesman for the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office, said that at least 12 people inside the evacuation zone had refused to leave their homes. Officials were still trying to persuade them to leave and also were trying to track down at least one worker not accounted for.

“I guess I should have stayed home,” said Frank Norris, who walked into the toxic plume twice before he was driven out by a hacking cough and fits of vomiting. On Friday, he waited in a Red Cross shelter at the University of South Carolina campus, rubbing his eyes and worrying about his wife, who had been transported to a hospital because of chest pains.

Norris, 49, an automobile mechanic who lives two blocks from the collision site, said he was working on a car in the rear yard of his house about 2:30 a.m. Thursday when a freight train rumbled by. About a minute later, he heard a series of booms. Norris peered down the track, but “couldn’t see a thing” in the dark.

The 42-car freight train, which included three tankers filled with liquid chlorine and two with other chemicals, rammed into another Norfolk Southern engine parked on a side track. Several public officials said there were indications of a switching problem, but a team of National Transportation Safety Board investigators dispatched to the scene did not offer any conclusions.

The switch at the collision point was locked, and the investigators interviewed the engine’s crew members Friday about their actions before the crash.

NTSB official Debbie Hersman said the engineer of the freight train had braked seconds before the collision, an indication that he had seen the parked train. Hersman said investigators also retrieved an event recorder that would provide speed and other critical information. A typical rail tanker holds 180,000 pounds of chlorine. If released, the liquid forms a toxic cloud that can tail downwind as far as 40 miles. Testing near the collision site on Friday showed chlorine levels above what was considered safe, but more distant readings showed lower levels.

“That provided some comfort,” said Thom Berry, a spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Minutes after the wreck, workers inside the Avondale Mills plant nearest the crash site tried to run to safety, only to rush directly into the poison mist. One worker, Carl Gartman, told the Augusta Chronicle that he saw a “yellow cloud coming” at them. Gartman said he made it out into the parking lot, but then “started coughing and spitting up all different kinds of stuff.” He said he passed out.

Later, emergency workers found several bodies near the plant, including one truck driver overcome in his cab.

Two blocks away, Norris noticed a “sweet-smelling kind of thing” and began coughing and felt a “shortness of breath.” He began walking down the tracks to investigate, but his hacking cough and a strange yellow tint in the air sent him in retreat.

“The grass all around was yellow” from chlorine, “like they painted it,” he recalled.

Rhonda Keenan, 41, who works in another Avondale Mills plant, just up the road, said workers in her division continued working all night. “I didn’t think anything was wrong until later on when I noticed there was a funny taste in my mouth, a metallic taste.”

At home, she began coughing and had trouble breathing, and she called an ambulance. Treated at St. Joseph Hospital, she later joined Norris and nearly 100 others staying overnight at the Red Cross shelter.

“The worst thing,” she said, “is that I know everyone who died.”