TANKER LEAK FORCES CROSSING CLOSURE

SCOTT CITY -- Rail traffic was shut down for about two hours Friday afternoon as crews worked to repair a leaky valve on a tank car full of denatured alcohol.

The Scott City Fire Department responded to the Oak Street railroad crossing at Main Street at about 1 p.m., said Deputy Fire Chief Jay Cassout.

No one was injured, and surrounding homes did not need to be evacuated, Cassout said. Denatured alcohol is highly flammable and has a flashpoint of 0 degrees.

"We would have had to evacuate had it caught fire, probably for a half-mile radius," he said. "We thought we could contain it by keeping people out of there and keeping ignition sources away."

Southern Pacific Railroad crews repaired the leaky tank, he said.

"It's lucky that one of their maintenance workers happened to come down the track and spotted the leak," he said, adding the train had sat on the track for "a couple of days."

Cassout estimated about "40 or 50" gallons of the chemical spilled, adding the tank had an estimated capacity of 250,000 to 300,000 gallons. He said there was no runoff into ditches in the area.