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Rockford Train Derailment Kills One, Causes Firey Blaze

by Amy Judd | June 20, 2009 at 08:35 am

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In Rockford, Illionis, a train derailment has killed one person and caused tank cars with thousands of gallons of ethanol on board to explode into flames.

Hundreds of homes nearby were also evacuated. Five cars are still on fire and fire officials are waiting for the blaze to burn out on its own.

Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten said 74 of the train's 114 cars were filled with ethanol, or ethyl alcohol.

At the height of the fire Friday night, 14 rail cars were ablaze, said Canadian National Railway Company spokesman Patrick Waldron.

Eighteen cars, all containing ethanol, left the tracks in the derailment about 9 p.m. Friday, Waldron said.

The person that died was a woman who was thought to have been waiting to cross the tracks when the train derailed. Three other people ran from the car when it was hit by flying railroad ties, and they were burned by ethanol. One is in serious to critical condition.

The crew managed to get away unharmed and pull 64 cars out of the way of the blast.

It is not known why the cars derailed at this time; early reports say that the tracks were washed out from heavy rains, but this has not been confirmed.
Rockford is about 80 miles northwest of Chicago.

There has been some very heavy rains in the Chicago area over the past few days, and in some areas, as much as four inches of rain has fallen in a 24 hour period. According to some witnesses, a few train cars started hydroplaning as they were approaching the crossing, then they exploded.

Kirk Wilson, a fire chief in nearby Rockton, said he expected the ethanol to continue burning until later Saturday.

"We're letting the product burn itself out," he said. "We can't get too close to it. We're observing everything through binoculars from about 200 or 300 feet away."

"The situation is not under control, but we are making progress in getting it under control," said Wilson, whose department was one of at least 26 that went to the derailment scene. "It's very dangerous. It's very explosive. We're not risking any firefighters' lives."

About 600 homes have been evacuated and they will remain so until environmental officials have given them the green light to go home. About 1,000 people have also lost power.

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