Freight Trains

1979 November 10th. Canada, Ontario, Mississauga near Toronto, intersection of Mavis Road: at 11:53 p.m. one tanker of a 106 car freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals derailed. Twenty-three other cars followed and some propane cars burst into flames on impact. Other cars containing styrene and toluene were punctured, spilling their chemicals on to track beds. Within a minute, flammable liquids and vapors ignited, causing a massive explosion of a tank car. The yellowish-orange fire rose to a height of 4,500 feet (1,500 metres) and could be seen 60 miles (100 kilometres) away. The fire was fed by six dangerous ingredients - 11 tank cars of propane, four with caustic soda, three with styrene, three with toluene, two box cars with fiberglass insulation and one with chlorine. While chlorine is non-combustible in air, most combustible materials will burn in chlorine as they do in oxygen. Liquid propane, styrene and toluene are flammable while caustic soda is not combustible, but in solid form and in contact with moisture or water, it may generate sufficient heat to ignite combustible materials. The derailment caused the largest peacetime evacuation of an urban area. More than 200,000 residents were displaced from their homes from two days up to one week in the days following the incident.

2000 April 5th. Norway, Lillestrom train station: collision of two freight trains, carrying more than 100 tons of propane, at least 2,000 people were evacuated after a fire started, no casualties

2000 May 27, Louisiana, Eunice (75 miles west of Baton Rouge) A 113-car Union Pacific freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed one-mile west of Eunice at 1:00 p.m. EDT. Twenty-five to thirty cars derailed causing numerous explosion of at least 10 cars that caught fire. About 12 different hazardous materials involved, including methyl chloride, acrylic acid, toluene diisocyanate and dichloropropane. Some of these chemicals are leaking into Eunice City Lake.

Woods and brush adjacent to the railroad tracks were also ignited. The fire beside the train tracks burned fiber optic telephone cables, which interrupted communications between some agencies working at the scene.

NTSB Report Freight Train may 27, 2000 at Eunice Louisiana

Initially hundreds of residents were evacuated from a one-mile radius around the accident site and three emergency shelters were opened. Nearly 7 hours later by 8 p.m. about 3,500 residents were ordered to leave homes and businesses up to 2.5 miles from the wreck because soot fell on neighborhoods beyond the first evacuation.


2002 May 28th. USA, Texas, near Clarendon: two Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains with a crew of two each collided head-on; 1 person died, 3 were injured

2004 February 18th - Northeastern Iran, Khoransan Province, near the city of Neyshabur: 51 freight cars rolled out of the Abu Muslim train station at 4 a.m. local time. Forty-eight of the cars (17 loaded with sulfur, 6 with gasoline, 7 with fertilizer, and 10 with cotton) derailed on reaching the next stop at Khayyam, about 12 miles away, and caught fire. Hours after the derailment, most of the fire had already been extinguished, the load detonated in a gigantic blast; more than 300 people died (many of them local top officials, firefighters, and emergency workers), and up to 500 others were injured.

2004 May 19th - United States, Texas, Gunter: about 50 miles north of Dallas two Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains collided head-on. About 20 cares derailed and at least one of the locomotives burned. One trains was empty, while the other hauled rocks; 1 person died and 4 other were injured.