Evacuees wait at a school after a train derailment near Maryville, Tennessee July 2, 2015.(Reuters)
A freight train carrying flammable and toxic gas derailed and a car caught fire in Tennessee, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people today, while 10 officers were hospitalized after breathing in fumes, officials said.
More than 5,000 people were evacuated from homes and businesses, they said.
Still, there were no injuries after the derailment around midnight on Wednesday of the CSX Corp rail company train in Blount County, eastern Tennessee.
Firefighters were allowing the blaze to burn itself out as of mid-morning on the advice of specialists, as attempts to extinguish it could be hazardous, Blount County firefighter Kermit Easterling said.
Five officers from the Blount County Sheriff's Office and five from the Alcoa Police Department were exposed to chemical-laden fumes from the blaze as they went door-to-door, sheriff's spokeswoman Marian O'Briant said.
Blount Memorial Hospital is holding the 10 officers for observation as a precaution and has not admitted them, hospital spokesman Josh West said.
Two people who fled the area without their medication were also at the hospital, he said.
CSX said a tank car loaded with acrylonitrile, a hazardous material used in manufacturing plastics and other industrial processes, derailed at about midnight on the train headed to Waycross, Georgia, from Cincinnati, Ohio.
The substance is flammable and presents an inhalation risk, CSX said. The 57-car train included 27 carrying hazardous materials, including cars carrying acrynolitrile on either side of the burning rail car, it said.
There was no crude oil among the 57 cars, CSX said.
Residents could be forced from their homes for up to two days and the Red Cross had set up a shelter in a nearby high school, officials said.
About 100 people were sheltered at Heritage High School in Marysville early Thursday, while many others opted to stay with friends and family, O'Briant said.
CSX said it was offering displaced residents assistance, including lodging.
"People are coming in left and right now," Peter O'Neill, volunteer director at the Blount County Red Cross, said in a telephone interview. "We have food set up. Cots. And we sent games for the kids."
Residents within a two-mile radius were evacuated initially, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. The zone was changed to 1-1/2 miles later today, according to O'Briant.
O'Neill said the area that was cleared includes industries, private homes and motor-home parks.
"It's a really populated area," he said.
Local businesses were closed to limit workers' exposure to possibly toxic fumes, while a community college was being used as a command center, Easterling said.
© Thomson Reuters 2015