(The Bluefield Daily Telegraph posted the following article by C. Kenna Amos on its website on March 27.)
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — For more than two hours, dark smoke from a derailed Norfolk Southern Railway train billowed upward into the overcast Wednesday morning sky near the eastern edge of the Bluefield Yards.
Downwind, the slightly acrid smell and taste of burning plastic, synthetic fibers and rubber filled the air.
And the occasional explosion of batteries, tires and gasoline tanks in burning motor vehicles that were carried on the train could be heard hundreds of feet away.
The accident occurred “at about 9:15 a.m.,” Susan Black, public relations manager for the mid-Atlantic region of the Norfolk Southern Railway, said from her Norfolk, Va., office. “Twelve of 88 cars derailed.”
Twelve vehicles were destroyed in a fire in an articulated auto-transporter railway car that bends in the middle, she said. Those were “Chevy vans,” Dave Thompson, assistant chief of the Green Valley-Glenwood Volunteer Fire Department, said.
A few hundred feet of main lines were mangled, she said. “However, there is an adjacent lead track that will allow trains to pass both east and west.”
“The three-diesel-engine train was traveling from Portsmouth, Ohio, to Norfolk, Va.,” Black said. “It was carrying auto parts, auto racks (transporters) and miscellaneous freight.”
There were no injuries to the two-person crew, she said. “There were also no hazardous materials spilled.”
Speculation on the cause of the fire is that the propane supply to a switch heater was damaged by one of the derailed cars, causing the propane to ignite, Black said. “But this still must be determined.”
“Cause of the derailment is also still under investigation,” she said. “It may be several weeks before our internal investigation is completed.”
An unidentified NS employee said it did not appear that there was indication of “any outside influence” that caused the derailment.
Another unidentified NS employee said that two to three switches had been damaged.
The accident happened near the Norfolk Southern’s RD Tower, about one-half mile from the U.S. 460 bridge, toward Bluefield. That tower separates the NS Virginia and Pocahontas divisions.
This derailment was in the approximate location of another NS train derailment that occurred in the 1993 blizzard. In that wreck, the train’s engines went over the embankment, toward U.S. Route 19 below.
A nearby resident, who lives on the Old Bluefield-Princeton Road, above and near the scene of Wednesday’s derailment, said, “I heard the wheels clacking just before the (Wednesday) accident.”
Green Valley-Glenwood Volunteer Fire Department, the East River Volunteer Fire Department, the Bluefield Rescue Squad and Green Valley Excavating responded to the emergency.
Members of the NS Police, Transportation and Mechanical Departments, and possibly others, were at the scene. There were also employees of Marshall Miller & Associates, of Bluefield, Va., and Biotech Environmental Services, of Princeton, at the site.
Green Valley-Glenwood VFD “got the alarm about 9:48 a.m.,” Duane Honaker, a firefighter, said. “We got to the site just after 10 a.m.”
Ten firefighters responded almost immediately, Lt. Joe George, of the Green Valley-Glenwood VFD, said. “Another three came a little bit later.”
At approximately 11:10 a.m., it appeared the fire was extinguished. The mostly gray smoke had nearly vanished.
But then the fire in the most forward compartment of the auto transporter appeared to gain hold. From above on the Old Bluefield-Princeton Road, approximately 300 feet from the fire, flames could be seen inside the transporter.
By noon, “the fire was declared contained,” Robert Hogue, Mercer County 911 director, said. He was down at East River, by U.S. Route 19, manning an East River Volunteer Fire Department pumper.
The truck was located directly beneath the scene of the fire. In almost two hours, it pumped 750 gallons of water up a 75-foot elevation to the firefighters on the tracks.
“Green Valley Excavating came and dug a 10 foot by 20 foot hole in East River and built a small earthen dam to hold the water,” Hogue said. “It helped us gain access to more water.”
“I was the first on the scene. The only other people were NS staff,” he said. “I came to locate the fire, so I could give directions to the Green Valley-Glenwood VFD.
“After the local group got to the scene, “I came down to U.S. Route 19 just to assist in any way I could,” he said. “That’s when I took over operating the pumper.
“That freed up one of the East River firefighers, who was then able to join his other three East River colleagues up on the tracks, battling the blaze.
“It was a pretty good (hot) fire,” Thompson said. “Basically, we just let the fire burn out.”
He said metallic skeletons were all that was left of the Chevy vans.A few minutes after noon, volunteer firefighters began visiting the Salvation Army’s mobile canteen. It had arrived just before noon and was parked just yards away from the East River VFD pumper.
“We were called at 11:15 a.m.,” Eugene Calinia, Salvation Army director of facilities and programs in Princeton, said.
“We’ll provide food, soft drinks, water and coffee. We’ll stay as long as they need us.”
The canteen was still there late afternoon Wednesday.NS has special equipment to get the derailed equipment back on the tracks, Black said. “Hulcher Company, from Barboursville, is expected to arrive at the scene by mid-afternoon Wednesday.”