(The following story by E. Richard Walton appeared on the Greenville News website on July 30, 2009.)
GREENVILLE, S.C. — About 12 cars of a CSX freight train derailed in Greenwood on Wednesday afternoon, causing a minor chemical spill along State 225, officials said.
Advertisement
George McKinney, Greenwood County’s public safety director, said the incident occurred about 4:15 p.m.
He said residents had been advised to stay in or return to their homes, and there was no evacuation.
“There is no danger to the citizens,” he said.
CSX spokesman Gary Sease said 10 of the derailed cars were carrying automobiles. He said the “train was local” and traveled in Greenwood. It was carrying two employees; no one was hurt.
Sease said he didn’t know how long it would take to right the train cars. “We’ll be working through the night and then we will see where we are.”
The county’s haz-mat team had turned the cleanup over to CSX. Sease said he didn’t know what caused the train to derail.
One train car had held the last drops of an unidentified “caustic chemical,” but so little remained that it posed no danger to people, McKinney said.
There also were two or three autos aboard the freight train that leaked a small amount of transmission fluid and motor oil, but that didn’t pose a danger, he said.