SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Fiery Derailment of Train Carrying Toxic Gas Sparks Evacuation of 5,000
Fire still burning after midnight derailment near Knoxville, Tenn.
Jul 02, 2015
This story may be updated...
The derailment of a train carrying a flammable, toxic gas near Knoxville, Tenn. on Thursday has forced the evacuation of roughly 5,000 people.
Local news WSMV reported Thursday morning that a "frantic cleanup effort" was ongoing. The flames will be allowed to burn out.
According to a statement from the train company, CSX, the 57-car train departed from Cincinnati, Ohio, and was headed to Waycross, Ga., when a single car derailed around midnight in Maryville and caught fire.
Twenty-seven of the train cars were carrying acrylonitrile, which the Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a probable human carcinogen.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that authorities were requesting kits to treat cyanide poisoning, as cyanide is a byproduct of acrylonitrile burning.
Maryville resident Brittany Parrott, who received an early morning knock on her door to evacuate, told the Associated Press that when she went outside, "You could smell it in the air."
"I had a headache, I was feeling nauseated and lightheaded, all the symptoms," Parrott said.
The Blount County Sheriff's Office stated that the evacuation, which covers two-mile radius, could last from 24-48 hours.
The office told NBC News that ten officers were being hospitalized because of fume inhalation.
Follow more updates on Twitter as the situation develops:
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
This story may be updated...
The derailment of a train carrying a flammable, toxic gas near Knoxville, Tenn. on Thursday has forced the evacuation of roughly 5,000 people.
Local news WSMV reported Thursday morning that a "frantic cleanup effort" was ongoing. The flames will be allowed to burn out.
According to a statement from the train company, CSX, the 57-car train departed from Cincinnati, Ohio, and was headed to Waycross, Ga., when a single car derailed around midnight in Maryville and caught fire.
Twenty-seven of the train cars were carrying acrylonitrile, which the Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a probable human carcinogen.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that authorities were requesting kits to treat cyanide poisoning, as cyanide is a byproduct of acrylonitrile burning.
Maryville resident Brittany Parrott, who received an early morning knock on her door to evacuate, told the Associated Press that when she went outside, "You could smell it in the air."
"I had a headache, I was feeling nauseated and lightheaded, all the symptoms," Parrott said.
The Blount County Sheriff's Office stated that the evacuation, which covers two-mile radius, could last from 24-48 hours.
The office told NBC News that ten officers were being hospitalized because of fume inhalation.
Follow more updates on Twitter as the situation develops:
This story may be updated...
The derailment of a train carrying a flammable, toxic gas near Knoxville, Tenn. on Thursday has forced the evacuation of roughly 5,000 people.
Local news WSMV reported Thursday morning that a "frantic cleanup effort" was ongoing. The flames will be allowed to burn out.
According to a statement from the train company, CSX, the 57-car train departed from Cincinnati, Ohio, and was headed to Waycross, Ga., when a single car derailed around midnight in Maryville and caught fire.
Twenty-seven of the train cars were carrying acrylonitrile, which the Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a probable human carcinogen.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that authorities were requesting kits to treat cyanide poisoning, as cyanide is a byproduct of acrylonitrile burning.
Maryville resident Brittany Parrott, who received an early morning knock on her door to evacuate, told the Associated Press that when she went outside, "You could smell it in the air."
"I had a headache, I was feeling nauseated and lightheaded, all the symptoms," Parrott said.
The Blount County Sheriff's Office stated that the evacuation, which covers two-mile radius, could last from 24-48 hours.
The office told NBC News that ten officers were being hospitalized because of fume inhalation.
Follow more updates on Twitter as the situation develops:
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.