Officials evacuate area after train derails in suburban Chicago

Emergency services ordered an evacuation that ultimately proved short-lived after a freight train derailed in a Chicago suburb on Thursday.

The Canadian National Railway train derailed around 10:30 a.m. in the village of Matteson. The company issued a statement around 1:30 p.m. saying about 25 cars derailed. There were no reports of fire or injuries, although one car leaked “residual liquefied petroleum gas,” the company said.

Steve DeJong, a firefighter on a national hazardous materials response team, said at an afternoon news conference that the substance is commonly known as propane – “just like you would use in your grill” – and that the train only transported residual quantities.

Propane is flammable and emergency responders didn’t know how much they were dealing with when they arrived at the derailment, so they ordered a two-block radius evacuation as a precaution, Matteson Mayor Sheila Chalmers-Currin told reporters. The evacuation order was for up to 300 people, she said.

DeJong said the leak was small and firefighters were able to contain it. The propane that escaped vaporized and spread so widely that it did not register with detectors, he said.

“We are now telling our residents that there is no danger to them at this time and that they can return home,” Chalmers-Currin said. “There is no danger. There is nothing poisonous that could harm anyone here.”

The cause of the derailment is being investigated, the company said.

Matteson is a village of 19,000 people located about 30 miles south of Chicago and 27 miles west of Gary, Indiana. Democratic U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly has a home there.