LIVINGSTON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky officials and crews with rail operator CSX were working Friday to remove train cars and spilled material at the site of a derailment that sparked a chemical fire earlier in the week, as residents began returning home after evacuations in a nearby Livingston.
State officials said they were monitoring the air for traces of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide, but there had been no detection of those substances at the derailment site or in Livingston since Thursday morning. The fire was extinguished at the site Thursday morning.
“We’re now able to get in and begin safely removing cars,” Joe McCann, director of emergency management and hazardous materials for CSX, said at a briefing Friday. McCann said an access road has been built to reach the derailment area and a handful of crashed train cars have been removed.
The CSX train derailed around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday near Livingston, a remote town with about 200 people in Rockcastle County. Residents were encouraged to evacuate just a day before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Two of the 16 cars that derailed carried molten sulfur, which caught fire after the cars were breached. That sulfur is now solidified, according to the state Energy and Environment Cabinet. The Cabinet also has a drone flying over the area Friday to collect information.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is also at the site.
McCann said Thursday that the company had provided hotel rooms to around 100 people and 40 pets. He said that if residents had concerns about returning home after the fire was extinguished they could reach out to the company about extending those arrangements.
CSX said the cause of the derailment and what caused the sulfur to ignite are still under investigation. Officials said they are also monitoring water quality in the area but a nearby creek is dried up and doesn`t have moving water.
The CSX train derailed around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday near Livingston, a remote town with about 200 people in Rockcastle County. Residents were encouraged to evacuate.
Two of the 16 cars that derailed carried molten sulfur, which caught fire after the cars were breached, CSX said in a statement.
It’s believed that the fire released the potentially harmful gas sulfur dioxide, but officials have not released results of measurements taken from air monitoring equipment that was being deployed Wednesday night.
The derailment meant some Livingston residents woke up on Thanksgiving in a middle school shelter.
Cindy Bradley had just finished cooking for the big meal Wednesday when an official knocking loudly urged her to leave her small Kentucky home as soon as possible because a train had derailed.
She ended up at Rockcastle County Middle School in Livingston __ unsure what was to come next.
“It’s just really scary. We don’t know how long this is,” Bradley told WTVQ-TV on Wednesday night, surrounded by dozens of cots.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency website, sulfur dioxide can cause respiratory problems, depending on the concentration and length of exposure. The gas is commonly produced by burning fossil fuels at power plants and other industrial processes, the EPA says.
Evelyn Gray noticed a problem when her back door was opened by someone telling her to evacuate.
“As soon as he opened the back door to come in the chemical hit me, and I had a real bad asthma attack,” Gray told the TV station.
The danger from sulfur dioxide tends to be direct and quick, irritating the lungs and skin, said Neil Donahue, a chemistry professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
“It is just nasty, caustic, and acidic stuff that hurts. It’s unpleasant to be in,” Donahue said.
Once the fire was put out, the threat from the chemicals was expected to diminish quickly, Donahue said.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in the county, assuring crews all the help from the state they need. He asked the public to keep in mind the emergency workers and people forced to spend Thanksgiving away from home.
“Please think about them and pray for a resolution that gets them back in their homes. Thank you to all the first responders spending this day protecting our people,” the governor said in a statement Thursday.
CSX promised to pay the costs of anyone asked to evacuate, including a Thanksgiving dinner.
Photo: Evacuees shelter at a middle school on Wednesday, Nov. 22. (WTVQ via AP)
Topics Kentucky
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