DERAILMENT PROMPTS EVACUATION; TRAIN CAR LEAK FORCES 500 TO LEAVE HOMES

BELL CITY -- A train derailment Sunday near Bell City prompted authorities to evacuate the town after chemicals began spilling from one of the damaged rail cars.

No injuries were reported.

The derailment of 28 cars of a 125-car Union Pacific freight train occurred at 5:40 p.m., one mile north of the town. Authorities began evacuating the town's 500 residents about an hour later, said a spokesperson with the Stoddard County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities said late Sunday that it would be after midnight before it would be determined when residents would be let back into their homes.

Jerry Fisher, mayor of Bell City, said power had been turned off in the town, which covers about 16 square miles.

The sheriff's department spokesperson, Deputy Sheriff Larry Batchelor, said at least 8,000 gallons of the chemical spilled onto the ground. He said about 100 law enforcement officials and several hazardous waste teams were trying to contain the spill, using sand and clay to build dams around the leak.

Batchelor said authorities attempted to contain the material until railroad and Environment Protection Agency officials were able to inspect the site. Batchelor said his department had been told the material was a sodium waste solution that was not flammable.

He said hazardous waste teams from Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties were called, as well as the Dexter Fire Department. Officials from DuPont chemical company were also on their way to the scene, he said.

Authorities believed fumes from the spill would be harmful if inhaled for a prolonged period of time.

Batchelor said the town was evacuated as a precaution after it was determined that winds could have carried the chemical fumes into the town.

The derailment occurred about a mile north of Bell City in northeast Stoddard County.

Authorities blocked off the area within a mile of the site immediately following the accident.

A spokesperson for the railroad, John Bromley of Omaha, Neb., said late Sunday the cause of the accident was still undetermined.

Bromley said the cars involved in the derailment had been emptied but still contained residue from hazardous material. He said one of the cars contained residue of hydrogen cyanide, also called hydrocyanic acid, and two others contained residue of isobutylene, a flammable gas. He said residue could equal hundreds or thousands of gallons of material.

Even after the cars are emptied, they are still considered as carrying hazardous material because some of the material is left inside, Bromley said.

Bromley said the other cars involved in the derailment did not contain hazardous material. The train was bound from Chicago to Little Rock, Ark.

The derailment occurred between the 65th and 94th cars, said a spokesperson for the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad, which owns the tracks.

Stoddard County authorities said evacuation of the town took about an hour. Batchelor of the sheriff's department said the capacity of the damaged rail car is 32,000 gallons.

Mayor Fisher said many townspeople went to relatives' homes, while others were taken to a senior citizens home in Advance and to the Advance schools, which had been opened for use as temporary shelters. Fisher said school buildings in Bloomfield were also opened up to house the town's residents.

"I don't think we had a panic," he said. "The evacuation went pretty well, even though a few people didn't want to leave."