(The following story by Sabian Warren appeared on the Asheville Citizen-Times website on June 18, 2010.)
OLD FORT, N. Carolina— A derailed train spilled 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel near Pisgah National Forest west of here on Thursday.
Norfolk Southern officials said they were working to mitigate the environmental damage from the morning spill, and they are still trying to determine the cause of the accident.
The derailment happened at about 5:40 a.m. in the Mill Creek area eight miles west of Old Fort in McDowell County. No one was injured and no hazardous materials besides the fuel were involved, said Bill Benge, a member of the Old Fort Volunteer Fire Department.
Two engines and 10 cars of the Norfolk Southern train went off the track as the train headed west up Old Fort Mountain, he said.
Diesel fuel leaked from one of the engines, but the fuel did not enter waterways, he said.
Norfolk Southern officials at a staging area on Graphite Road declined to comment.
Robin Chapman, a Norfolk Southern spokesman in Norfolk, Va., said the 110-car train was on the way to Knoxville, Tenn., from Linwood, N.C.
The derailed cars were empty boxcars, he said. One of the derailed engines landed on its side and leaked an estimated 3,000 gallons of fuel, Chapman said.
“We’ve got that diesel fuel we’ll need to clean up,” he said.
The cause of the accident hadn’t been determined, Chapman said.
“That will have to be investigated. Usually, that might take a few weeks,” he said.
Chapman said the spill happened about a mile from Pisgah National Forest and that the tracks wind in and out of the public lands. National forest officials could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.
Graphite Road resident James Scoles, whose yards adjoins the train track, heard a loud noise shortly after 5:30 a.m.
“I heard a loud boom,” Scoles said. “I knew something had happened. I just didn’t know what.”
A back section of the train came to a stop by his home. But the front of the train, where the engines and cars derailed, was obscured by dense woods. A Norfolk Southern police unit on the scene declined to allow anyone except railroad and emergency personnel access to the site where the cars derailed.
“Living by the railroad, you’re all the time hearing a lot of racket,” Scoles said. “But this was a little louder than usual.”
The last nearby derailment occurred in 2005 when a Norfolk Southern train rocked off its tracks near the town of Coleman in McDowell County.