A huge fire is burning out of control in West Virginia and 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, after a train carrying crude oil derailed. When the accident happened, on the afternoon of Monday, February 16, crude oil began pouring into a river that supplies drinking water. Officials noted that at least one of the derailed tanker cars fell into the Kanawha River. The area is about 30 miles from the location where 10,000 gallons of a coal industry chemical called crude MCHM spilled and tainted the drinking water supply a little over one year ago.
A huge fire is burning out of control in West Virginia and 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, after a train carrying crude oil derailed.
When the accident happened, on the afternoon of Monday, February 16, crude oil began pouring into a river that supplies drinking water.
Officials noted that at least one of the derailed tanker cars fell into the Kanawha River. The area is about 30 miles from the location where 10,000 gallons of a coal industry chemical called crude MCHM spilled and tainted the drinking water supply a little over one year ago.
The train, owned by CSX Corp., was carrying more than 100 tankers of crude oil from the Bakken shale in North Dakota when it derailed at about 1:30 pm. Officials estimated that approximately 14 of those tankers were involved in the derailment and subsequent fire. Governor Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency at around 5:40 pm.
One home so far has been confirmed destroyed, and at least one person has been sent to the hospital for inhaling smoke. CSX put out a statement Monday night saying it would provide hotel rooms for displaced residents.
This was the second such incident in three days.
Late Saturday night, a train carrying Bakken crude oil derailed in northern Ontario, Canada, spilling oil and causing a fire. In that incident, 29 of the 100 cars on the train went off the track near Timmins, Ontario. An “unknown amount” of oil was spilled.
CSX, the railroad company, issued this statement in relation to Monday’s accident: “CSX teams continue to work with first responders, local officials, the State of West Virginia, and the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Railroad Administration on the assessment and preliminary recovery from a derailment that occurred near Mount Carbon, West Virginia, on Monday, February 16.”
What’s wrong with this picture? Whether it’s via a pipeline or via a railroad, transporting crude oil is a dangerous and unnecessary procedure.
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Train image via Shutterstock.
