(The Associated Press circulated the following article on March 13.)
ONEIDA, N.Y. — Firefighters emptied three derailed CSX fuel tankers into a pit Tuesday and set the fuel ablaze to help clear the scene so federal officials can begin their investigation into the cause of Monday’s freight train derailment.
The derailed tankers containing liquid propane were emptied because they were too unstable to move, said Oneida Fire Chief Don Hudson.
The burn-off will likely generate heavy smoke and flames for up to two days, but local residents will not be in danger, said Hudson and CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan. Sullivan added that it might be necessary to empty more tankers, but officials won’t know that until they finish examining all the toppled cars.
Firefighters were on standby at the scene while a private company was monitoring the air quality throughout this upstate New York community 20 miles east of Syracuse. If anything goes wrong, firefighters also have 700 gallons of foam on site to douse the fire.
“If there is any problem whatsoever, we will shut the operation down. But everything is proceeding on time. We are looking good. We are confident this is the way to go,” Hudson said.
The 80-car freight train was traveling east from Buffalo to the Albany area Monday morning when 28 cars jumped the tracks. At least five 80,000-gallon tanker cars _ two carrying liquid propane, two loaded with liquid petroleum and one containing the solvent toluene _ caught fire or exploded in the wreck, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents.
The majority of residents were allowed back in their homes by Monday evening. But a state of emergency remained in effect for a half-mile radius around the scene and eight homes remained under a mandatory evacuation order, said Madison County Fire Coordinator Joe DeFrancisco.
Sullivan said CSX would provide compensation to those displaced by the accident.
The fire also led to the closing of a 23-mile stretch of the nearby New York State Thruway for nearly five hours Monday and the suspension of Amtrak passenger service between Syracuse and Albany. Amtrak service remained stalled Tuesday and passengers were being bused around the detour.
No one was injured in the accident or by the toxic smoke, authorities said.
Robert Evans of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen told The Syracuse Post-Standard that he had spoken with the engineer and the conductor since the accident. Evans said the derailment occurred as the train was crossing over from one track to a parallel track. Uneven tracks likely caused the cars to become off-balance and tip, he told the newspaper.
The toppled cars continued sliding down the tracks, the metal frames scraping along the rail as one or more of the cars was ripped apart and a spark ignited the explosion, Evans said.
Evans said the engineer and the conductor knew of the derailment before the explosion and had plenty of time to activate brakes on the rear cars. A radio-controlled sensor on the freighter detected the derailment and shut off the engine’s fuel switch, he said.
Evans estimated that the train was traveling less than 30 mph at the time of the accident.
Federal investigators have not said what caused the accident, or determined whether the derailment or explosion occurred first. Nor have they identified the crew or commented on their actions.
Sullivan also declined comment, saying the cause remains under investigation.
A seven-member team from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the accident scene Tuesday to begin its investigation. NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said it could be a year or more before the agency has a final answer.
“We have to wait and make sure it’s safe for investigators to get on scene,” Holloway said. “Once that has been done, we will document and examine cars, look for any failures in the structure of the tank cars, look at the track and look at the wheels of the car. We’ll look for anything that can give us an idea of what happened.”
Authorities have recovered the black boxes from both locomotives, he said.
The accident is the fifth derailment involving CSX in New York since December, prompting calls from U.S. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer for a federal investigation into railroad safety across the state.
“(The) accident should be a wake-up call,” Clinton wrote in a letter to Federal Railroad Administration chief Joseph Boardman. “We cannot continue to treat these derailments as isolated incidents.”
Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation released data showing train accidents across the country declined for the second year in a row, falling from 3,236 in 2005 to 2,834 in 2006. The number of accidents fell from 105 to 89 in New York state.