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think_lees

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090620/ap_on_re_us/us_illinois_train_derailment


Tank cars blow up in Illinois derailment, 1 killed
AP


22 mins ago

ROCKFORD, Ill. – Tank cars loaded with thousands of gallons of highly flammable ethanol exploded in flames as a freight train derailed, killing one person and forcing evacuations of hundreds of nearby homes.

The cars continued burning Saturday morning and officials said they would wait for the "very dangerous" inferno to burn out by itself.

Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten said 74 of the train's 114 cars were filled with ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, but only a dozen of them were burning.

Officials evacuated the area on the edge of Rockford, about 80 miles northwest of Chicago, Friday night amid concerns about air pollution and the chance that more of the train's cars might catch fire.

Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said early Saturday the death was that of a female who was in a car waiting for the train to pass a crossing near the derailment site.

Bergsten said three other people ran from the car when it was bombarded with flying railroad ties and they were severely burned by flaming ethanol. They were taken to OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in serious to critical condition, and one was transferred to Stroger Hospital in Chicago, he said.

Two crewmen on the eastbound Canadian National train escaped injury, said company spokesman Patrick Waldron. The engine crew was able to pull 64 cars away from the scene.

The cause of the derailment was still under investigation Saturday but witnesses told the Rockford Register-Star that cars on the Chicago-bound train began hydroplaning in standing water as it approached the crossing. Some of them left the tracks moments before two of them exploded.

Parts of northern Illinois may have gotten up to 4 inches of rain Friday, said meteorologist Gino Izzi of the National Weather Service. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, 40 to 50 miles east of Rockford, measured 3.6 inches, a record for the date, he said.

Kirk Wilson, a fire chief in nearby Rockton, said he expected the ethanol to continue burning until later Saturday.

"We're letting the product burn itself out," he said. "We can't get too close to it. We're observing everything through binoculars from about 200 or 300 feet away."

"The situation is not under control, but we are making progress in getting it under control," said Wilson, whose department was one of at least 26 that went to the derailment scene. "It's very dangerous. It's very explosive. We're not risking any firefighters' lives."

Officials evacuated residents of about 600 homes within a half-mile of the derailment, Bergsten said. He said potentially toxic fumes should keep them out of their homes until environmental officials give them the green light to return.

"At first I thought it was a tornado because they always say a tornado sounds like a train coming," said Jeff Tilley, a Register-Star employee who lives near the scene of the derailment.

Alicia Zatkowski, a spokeswoman for ComEd, said the derailment knocked out power to about 1,000 of the Chicago-based utility's Rockford-area customers.

The derailment was being investigated by Canadian National and the Federal Railroad Administration. Members of the National Transportation Safety Board were en route early Saturday.
 

think_lees

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ap_train_derailment_090620_mn.jpg


http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=7887004


Tank Cars Blow up in Illinois Derailment, 1 Killed

Fiery Freight Train Derailment Kills 1, Residents Evacuated
ROCKFORD, Ill. June 20, 2009 (AP)
The Associated Press


PHOTO: Train derailment in Rockford, Illinois
A trail derailment and fire in Rockford, Ill., kills one passenger, injurs others.
(Scott Morgan/Rockford Register Star/AP Photo)

Tank cars loaded with thousands of gallons of highly flammable ethanol exploded in flames as a freight train derailed, killing one person and forcing evacuations of hundreds of nearby homes.

The cars continued burning Saturday morning and officials said they would wait for the "very dangerous" inferno to burn out by itself.

Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten said 74 of the train's 114 cars were filled with ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, but only a dozen of them were burning.

Officials evacuated the area on the edge of Rockford, about 80 miles northwest of Chicago, Friday night amid concerns about air pollution and the chance that more of the train's cars might catch fire.

Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said early Saturday the death was that of a female who was in a car waiting for the train to pass a crossing near the derailment site.

<hr>

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31458249/ns/us_news-life/


Train derailment, explosion kills 1 near Chicago
Witnesses report massive fireball; track may have been washed out by rain


updated 5:51 a.m. ET June 20, 2009

ROCKFORD, Illinois - A freight train derailed on Friday, triggering an explosion that killed one woman and prompted officials to evacuate hundreds of homes in Illinois.

Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said the victim was a woman who had been in a car stopped at a railroad crossing when the Canadian National train derailed Friday night in Rockford, about 80 miles northwest of Chicago.

Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten said the occupants of the car were severely burned when several ethanol-filled tank cars exploded after the derailment at around 8:30 p.m.

About 600 homes within a half-mile radius of the scene were evacuated.

The 114-car train included 74 tankers carrying ethanol and that 12 of those tankers were involved in the fire, fire officials said.

There had been heavy rainfall in the area and the Rockford Register Star reported that the track may have been washed out.

Witnesses reported seeing a massive fireball after the train derailed, according to the newspaper.

"At first I thought it was a tornado because they always say a tornado sounds like a train coming," Jeff Tilley, an employee of the paper who lives near the scene, said.

Another Register Star employee, Amy Walker, said she and her husband were in a car near the crossing when they saw train cars bouncing up and down.

"Then they started piling up and the two tank cars exploded," she said.

When that happened, she said, several people in vehicles near the crossing jumped out and ran away.
 
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