Homes evacuated in New York town as ethanol leaks from derailed train
Crews work to clear the site of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailment that forced the evacuation of dozens of western New York homes after ethanol leaked from two tankers.
Crews worked Wednesday to clear the site of a 16-car Norfolk Southern freight train derailment that forced the evacuation of dozens of western New York homes after ethanol leaked from two tankers.
A spokesman for the rail company and police said the train left the tracks around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in the town of Ripley, which sits along Lake Erie, near the Pennsylvania border about 60 miles southwest of Buffalo.
No one was injured and there was no fire, emergency response officials said, but two of the derailed cars contained ethanol that leaked. Chief Mark Smith of the Ripley Volunteer Fire Department said the leaks from both cars were contained Wednesday morning.
There was no immediate word on what may have caused the accident, and city officials have called for a state of emergency.
Dozens of firefighters who responded to the scene endured 20-degree temperatures, snow, freezing rain and winds that gusted to 30 mph overnight, emergency officials said. Heavy equipment was brought in to right the overturned cars, while the remaining ethanol was being transferred from the derailed tankers to trucks, Smith said.
Between 50 and 55 homes in the town of about 2,400 were evacuated due to the risk of an explosion and fire the ethanol and propane posed, Smith said.
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“It could have been a lot worse,” he said.
Nearby schools were closed and about 30 residents were given assistance at a shelter set up at a church, officials said.
The derailment occurred on one of four sets of tracks along a stretch of rails running through a section of town located just a couple miles from the Lake Erie shoreline in western Chautauqua County.
“We want to make sure we get life back to normal, train traffic back to normal, as soon as we can, but we have to do this safely,” said Norfolk Southern spokesman David Pidgeon.
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