Some return home as firefighters work at site of train derailment

10/11/2007

PAINESVILLE, Ohio Some people ordered out of their homes while firefighters battled a large, smoky fire at the site of a CSX train derailment in northeast Ohio were allowed back on Thursday as efforts to extinguish the blaze began in earnest.

Authorities had evacuated an area within one-half mile of the derailment, including business sites and homes where more than 1,000 people live.

They are letting a number of people back in their homes, said Ken Gauntner, Lake County administrator. The people closest to the incident are still being kept out.

A CSX spokesman said about 30 cars in the 112-car mixed freight train en route from Collingwood to Buffalo, N.Y., derailed about noon Wednesday.

Eight of the cars that derailed were loaded with potentially hazardous materials, mostly ethanol, but one carried liquefied petroleum gas, said Garrick Francis, a spokesman for Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX Corp.

Firefighters had spent the night keeping water on a tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas.

Now that we have the light of day, we re going to attack the actual fire and put it out, Gauntner said.

No injuries were reported, he said.

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