A train carrying more than 100 tankers of crude oil derailed during a snowstorm in the southern US state of West Virginia on Monday, sending at least one tanker into a river, igniting at least 14, and sending a fireball dozens of meters into the sky, government officials and local residents said.
Part of the train slammed into a house, residents said.
Officials evacuated hundreds of families and shut down two water treatment plants threatened by oil seeping into a river.
Photo: Reuters
Fires were burning nearly nine hours after the incident, West Virginia public safety division spokesman Lawrence Messina said, adding that the plan is to let tankers on fire burn out.
Resident David McClung said he felt the heat from one explosion in his home about 800m away.
“It was a little scary. It was like an atomic bomb went off,” he said.
One blast that followed sent a fireball at least 90m into the air, McClung said.
One person was being treated for potential inhalation issues, but no other injuries were reported, according to a news release from CSX Corp, the train company.
West Virginia was under a winter storm warning and getting heavy snowfall at times, with as much as 12.5cm in some places. It is not clear if the weather had anything to do with the derailment, which occurred about 1:20pm on a flat stretch of rail about 50km southeast of Charleston. Federal railroad and hazardous materials officials are investigating the accident.
Responders at the scene reported at least one tanker went into the river, Messina said.
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