Nov. 27--WILLARD, Ohio -- Hundreds of people, maybe even 1,000 or more, were evacuated from their homes in the middle of the night after a CSX rail car was found to be leaking a highly flammable petroleum product.
Most evacuees left their homes between midnight and 3 a.m. and went to Willard High School or to hotels as far away as Tiffin and Sandusky, where CSX Transportation was picking up the tab, said Brian Humphress, city manager.
Police officers, firefighters, and highway patrol troopers went door-to-door to about 400 households within a half-mile radius of the Willard rail yard after an initial telephone alert, Mr. Humphress said.
The leak in the rail car was discovered shortly before midnight near where the CSX tracks cross North Main Street in Willard, which is in southern Huron County. The area surrounding the rail yard is residential with homes built between about 1900 and 1940.
Mr. Humphress said he did not know how the leak was discovered.
The leaking substance is styrene monomer, he said.
Thousands of gallons leaked from the rail car, but all of the leakage is thought to be on CSX property, he said.
Representatives of the U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA are on the scene as well as cleanup crews hired by CSX. Cleanup started about 4:30 a.m. with crews vacuuming the liquid into a tanker.
But the cleanup process is going slower than originally hoped because the substance vaporizes quickly and is highly flammable, Mr. Humphress said.
About a mile of Main Street is blocked off to traffic.
The incident will be investigated and charges are possible, Mr. Humphress said.
No one is thought to have been injured.
Copyright 2013 - The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
