Incident Report

Subject:                     Ethanol Rail Car Derails in Arcadia Ohio

Date of Email report:   Mon 14/02/2011

Report Detail:

 
ARCADIA, Ohio — Authorities in Hancock County said most people have returned to their homes after a freight train carrying volatile chemicals derailed and caught fire earlier this month. Some of the train cars exploded after catching fire, forcing evacuations of nearby homes. No one was injured. "Everything around us just started flickering, like there was almost a dim light somewhere," said Chris Moses, who lives nearby. "The whole sky lit up and everything around us was orange."

About 20 homes were evacuated in the area about two miles west of the village of Arcadia. Only a handful of families were still out of their homes as of late Sunday 7th February, 10TV's Jason Frazer reported. Capt. Jim Breyman of the Arcadia Fire Department said on Sunday that the fire was subsiding, though it could take a day or two for it to completely burn out. The train was headed from Chicago to North Carolina with 62 cars loaded with ethanol. It's unknown what caused the derailment. 

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency collected samples of water near the blast sight to check for possible contamination, Frazer reported. Watch 10TV News and refresh 10TV.com for additional information.

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