(The following report by Kim North Shine and Chastity Pratt appeared on the Detroit Free Press website on October 25.)
DETROIT, Mich. — Hundreds of students and residents on Detroit’s east side were evacuated Monday morning after train cars carrying hazardous material derailed.
Nine train cars derailed about 10 a.m. – four of them tankers containing a flammable liquid – said Commander Robert Dunlap of the Detroit Police Department’s 11th Precinct. Dunlap called the spill “minimal.’’
The accident happended near Savannah and I-75. The 79-car train was enroute from Chicago to Detroit. A CN Railroad spokeswoman said did not know where the train was headed. She said the four cars contained methynol.
Police and fire officials evacuated homes and business within a 1 square mile of the spill. Authorities did not know the cause of the derailment. A wrecking crew had been called to the scene to help the railroad company lift the derailed cars.
Two elementary schools – Greenfield Union and Greenfield Park – were evacuated after the accident. Parents and others rushed to the schools to pick up their children. At the same time school buses and city buses helped transport students to nearby Pershing High School, said Mattie Majors, a spokeswoman for the Detroit Schools District. Students at Grayling Elementary School, which is just outside the 1 mile evacuation area, were not evacuated, but parents of students there were allowed to pick up their children if they were overly concerned about their safety, district officials said.
About 1,200 students were evacuated from the two schools because the buildings were located within 1 mile of the derailment.
Major said the district officials were told to evacuate the buildings because the overturned train cars contained a potentially hazardous and flammable chemical.
She said that there were no reports of children who were injured or sickened in connection with the train derailment.
The incident was initially reported as a hazmat Level 3, but within an hour was downgraded to a level 2 after engineers determined that only drops of the chemical were leaking.
Police and fire officials were awaiting railroad engineers to inspect the site before allowing residents to return to their homes, said Fire Commissioner Tyrone Scott.
Gloria Combe, a spokesmwoman for CN Railroad, said the tanker was leaking eight drops per minute.
She said as part of the investigation the company would recover a black box to find out what caused the derailment, including the speed of the train. She said the company routinely conducts drug tests of its employees.
The railroad company is based in Montreal.