Fire Captain Michael A. Washington reported a railroad train derailment that occurred early this morning in Queensgate. At 9:32 AM the Cincinnati Fire Communication Center received a telephone call from the CSX Railroad reporting that they had a derailment involving several rail cars.
Initial arriving fire units discovered that there were several rail cars off of their tracks, several of which had overturned. At this time there are a total of six railcars off the tracks, four of them are on there side. Two of the four are low pressure vessels used for transporting compressed gases. We have identified two of these low pressurized vessel contained the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) which is very similar in characteristics to Butane. The LPG that is involved in this incident has not had mercaptan (odor agent) added yet.
LPG is a colorless gas, liquid under pressure. LPG has an unpleasant distinctive, mercaptan like odor it reacts violently with oxides of nitrogen. LPG is heavier than air and tends to sink toward the ground. It can travel and find an ignition source. The explosive range is very narrow which helps in this situation.
At this time there are no leaks associated with this incident, the total amount of product is 262,000 pounds of product which is contained within the two pressurized vessels. An evacuation perimeter has been set up for a distance of one half mile in all directions from the derailment site.
The evacuation zone encompass the following cross streets; Gest and Dalton Streets south to Eighth Street, Eighth Street west to Evans Street, Evans Street North to Gest Street, then Gest back to the Dalton.
The Cincinnati Fire Department is standing by to assist CSX with any auxiliary issues that may arise. After the two railcars containing the LPG are back on the track without any leaks, CSX will mitigate the remaining portion of this incident. The Cincinnati Police department is continuing to support the overall operation with traffic control, evacuation directive and perimeter control.
The estimated duration of this incident may go for several more hours, CSX estimates one hour per railcar, this just an estimate. There have been no reported injuries. Future updates to follow.
