Train derailment: What's in the massive smoke plume?

Train derailment: A train crashed into a trash truck, derailed, and caught fire Tuesday in a Baltimore suburb, setting off an explosion that rattled homes and sent a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen for miles. Witnesses said they smelled chemicals, but officials said nothing toxic was released in the train derailment.

|
Courtesy of Kevin Lindemann / AP
A train derailment caused an explosion outside Baltimore this afternoon. A fire spokeswoman for Baltimore County says the train derailed about 2 p.m. Tuesday in White Marsh, Md.

A CSX freight train crashed into a trash truck, derailed, and caught fire Tuesday in a Baltimore suburb, setting off an explosion that rattled homes at least a half-mile (800 meters) away and sent a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen for miles.

In the third serious train derailment this month, the dozen or so rail cars, at least one carrying hazardous material, went off the tracks at about 2 p.m. in Rosedale, a suburb east of Baltimore. A hazardous materials team responded, but Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said at a news conference that no toxic inhalants were being released. Officials did not order an evacuation.

By nightfall, the hazmat team had left, meaning there was no more danger posed from the chemicals in the rail car, said Baltimore County police Capt. Bruce Schultz.

The truck driver, 50-year-old John J. Alban Jr., was in serious condition Tuesday night, a hospital spokeswoman said. Two CSX workers aboard weren't hurt.

Dale Walston said he lives about a half-mile away and that he thought he could smell chemicals.

"It shook my house pretty violently and knocked things off the shelves," he said in an email to The Associated Press.

Even hours after the blast, the thick plume of black smoke could be seen for miles and had drifted and covered the eastern part of Baltimore. Later, the smoke that was left had lightened considerably, changing from black to gray, though the fire wasn't yet extinguished as of 9 p.m.

CSX spokesman Gary Sease said in an email that one of the cars was carrying sodium chlorate, which the Department of Transportation classifies as a hazardous material. However, Baltimore County Fire Chief John Hohman said the chemical was not in any of the cars that were still burning into the evening. The bleaching agent is used in making paper.

Two warehouses were heavily damaged by the explosion and other buildings suffered some damage, but none collapsed.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railroad Administration were sending teams to investigate Tuesday's crash of the 45-car freight train en route from Selkirk, New York, to Waycross, Georgia.

Late Tuesday evening, Robert Sumwalt of the NTSB said the accident occurred at a private crossing where the only marking was a stop sign. He said it wasn't clear why the truck was crossing the tracks or whether it was authorized to be there.

Photos showed at least a dozen rail cars off the tracks, including at least one tanker car. Sease said four of the cars believed derailed carried terephthalic acid, which is used in the production of plastics and polyester, among other things. He said it is not listed as a hazardous material.

Sumwalt said it was the chemical that exploded as a result of the derailment.

It was the third serious derailment this month. On May 17, more than 70 people were injured when a commuter train went off the tracks in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was then struck by another train. In Rockview, Missouri, on Saturday, a cargo train crash injured seven people and destroyed a highway overpass, which could take a year to repair.

Despite the high-profile railroad accidents, the overall number of such crashes has been declining industry wide. Last year was the safest year on record for the railroad industry, according to the railroad administration.

Associated Press writers Kasey Jones in Baltimore, David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Joan Lowy in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Train derailment: What's in the massive smoke plume?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0529/Train-derailment-What-s-in-the-massive-smoke-plume
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe