LIVINGSTON, Ky. — A chemical fire at a train derailment in Kentucky that caused evacuations has been extinguished and people can return to their homes, railroad company CSX said Thursday.
CSX spokesman Bryan Tucker said in an email Thursday afternoon that “the fire is completely out.” He said authorities and CSX officials reviewed the air monitoring data and decided it was safe to allow displaced people to return home.
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.
Two of the 16 derailed cars were carrying molten sulfur, which caught fire after the cars breached, CSX said in a statement.
The fire is believed to have released the potentially harmful gas sulfur dioxide, but officials have not released results from measurements from air monitoring equipment deployed Wednesday evening.
The derailment left some Livingston residents waking up in a high school shelter on Thanksgiving.
Cindy Bradley had just finished cooking the big meal Wednesday when an official knocking loudly urged her to leave her small home in Kentucky as quickly as possible because a train had derailed.
She ended up at Rockcastle County Middle School in Livingston, not knowing what would happen next.
“It’s just very scary. We don’t know how long this is,” Bradley told WTVQ-TV 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 duration of exposure. The gas is commonly produced by burning fossil fuels in power plants and other industrial processes, the EPA says.
Evelyn Gray noticed a problem when her back door was opened by someone who told her to evacuate.
“As soon as he opened the back door to get in, the chemical hit me, and I had a really bad asthma attack,” Gray told the TV station.
The danger from sulfur dioxide is usually immediate and rapid, irritating the lungs and skin, says Neil Donahue, a professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University.
“It’s just a nasty, corrosive and acidic stuff that hurts. It’s unpleasant to be here,” Donahue said.
Once the fire was extinguished, the threat from the chemicals was expected to diminish quickly, Donahue said.
CSX is now working to clean up an additional chemical spill and restore the area.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in the county and assured crews of all the state help they needed. He asked the public to be considerate of first responders and people who had to spend Thanksgiving away from home.
“Please think of them and pray for a solution that will allow them to return home. Thank you to all the first responders who are protecting our people this day,” the governor said in a statement Thursday.
CSX promised to pay the costs of anyone asked to evacuate, including a Thanksgiving dinner.