|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Train derailment forces evacuations
WAVERLY, Tennessee (CNN) -- Officials evacuated at least 15 homes here Wednesday night after five train cars derailed, threatening to rupture another tanker car carrying a highly flammable substance, according to state officials and police in the western Tennessee town. No one was injured in the incident, which happened around 9:15 p.m. (10:15 p.m. EDT). The tanker carrying heptane did not rupture or catch fire, according to Cecil Whaley of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. Officials evacuated a half-mile area around the site as a precaution. The CSX train was traveling from a DuPont chemical plant in New Johnsonville -- about 10 miles west of Waverly -- to the Nashville area, Whaley said. "The bad thing is that [Waverly] is the site of the worst explosion from a hazmat fire in 1978," Whaley said. Sixteen people in Waverly died that year when three tank cars carrying liquefied petroleum gas were damaged in a train derailment and exploded, according to TEMA's Web site. A major portion of downtown Waverly was destroyed in the 1978 blast, according to the Web site. Waverly is about 50 miles west of Nashville. Hazardous materials teams are working through the night to remove two of the overturned boxcars which are leaning on the tanker. "The first thing we want to do is get those boxcars away from the tanker ... and then move that tanker out of town as quickly as possible," Whaley said. Heptane is a colorless, flammable liquid that is highly explosive and flammable. It can release poisonous vapors that can cause skin irritation and dizziness The local emergency director set up an overnight shelter for the evacuated residents in a local church. A CSX team is on site to investigate the cause of the derailment, Whaley said. The incident comes less than a week after a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed about 20 miles southwest of Knoxville, Tennessee, rupturing a tank car carrying sulfuric acid. No casualties were reported from the accident or from the ensuing toxic spill, Knoxville police said. Authorities evacuated 3,000 people from the populous Turkey Creek and Farragut communities, emergency officials said. "We always want to be sure we take really good care of those folks," Whaley said about the residents of Waverly. The 1978 explosion "changed the way we handle these situations."
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
