(The Associated Press circulated the following on October 12.)
PAINESVILLE, Ohio — Firefighters on Thursday battled a train derailment fire for a second day and some residents who had been evacuated were allowed to return to their homes.
When the CSX train derailed Wednesday, homes and businesses within one-half mile of the site had been evacuated. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were allowed to return, but the original evacuation zone had more than 1,000 residents.
“The people closest to the incident are still being kept out,” said Ken Gauntner, Lake County administrator.
Firefighters had spent the night keeping water on a tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas.
“Now that we have the light of day, we’re going to attack the actual fire and put it out,” Gauntner said.
About 30 cars in the 112-car train derailed, and eight derailed cars were carrying potentially hazardous materials. Ethanol was carried on some cars, and one had liquefied petroleum gas, said Garrick Francis, a spokesman for Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX Corp.
No injuries were reported. The train was traveling from Collinwood to Buffalo, N.Y.