Cleanup, air monitoring underway at Kentucky train derailment site

LIVINGSTON, Ky. — Officials and crews from Kentucky and railroad CSX worked Friday to remove rail cars and spilled material from the site of a derailment that sparked a chemical fire earlier this week and prompted home evacuations in a nearby town.

State officials said Friday 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 the nearby city of Livingston since Thursday morning. The fire at the location was extinguished on Thursday afternoon.

“We can step in now and start removing cars safely,” Joe McCann, director of emergency management and hazardous materials for CSX, said during a briefing Friday. McCann said an access road has been constructed to reach the derailment area and an access road has been constructed to reach the derailment area. A handful of crashed train cars have been removed.

The CSX train derailed Wednesday around 2:30 p.m. near Livingston, a remote town of about 200 people in Rockcastle County. Residents were encouraged to evacuate just one day before Thanksgiving.

Two of the sixteen derailed cars were carrying molten sulfur, which caught fire after the cars breached. That sulfur has now solidified, according to the state Energy and Environment Cabinet. The government will also fly a drone over the area on Friday to collect information.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is also on site.

McCann said Thursday that the company has provided hotel rooms for about 100 people and 40 pets. He said if residents had any concerns about returning home after the fire was extinguished, they could contact 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 has dried up and has no moving water.