Maryville, Tenn., derailment
3:30 p.m. July 2, 2015

CSX continues to work with first responders, relief agencies including the Red Cross, and health and environmental officials in Maryville, Tenn., after a tank car derailed and caught fire. CSX has established a Community Outreach Center at Heritage High School, 3741 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway, in Maryville. At the Outreach Center, the company is working with residents to arrange lodging as available, and has drinking water en route. Earlier today, residents on wells in the vicinity of the derailment were advised by local authorities not to drink the water pending further assessments. Air monitoring is under way, and water monitoring is being established.

CSX has established a community resource hotline, and affected residents can call 1-800-331-4031. Media should continue to call the company’s on-duty representative at 1-855-955-NEWS (6397).

Around midnight, a train en route from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Waycross, Ga., derailed the single tank car. The car contained approximately 24,000 gallons of acrylonitrile, a flammable liquid used in a variety of industrial processes including the manufacture of plastics. First responders ordered an evacuation of a two-mile radius, which remains in effect.

The train is made up of two locomotives and 57 cars, including 45 loaded cars and 12 empty cars. Cars of acrylonitrile are located on either side of the burning rail car. No crude oil is among the rail cars. A total of 27 cars in the train are carrying hazardous materials, including propane (16 cars), and acrylonitrile (9 cars). The propane and acrylonitrile are in tank cars approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation for pressurized products. Tank cars that carry pressurized products have thicker shells. Two tank cars of asphalt, designated as hazardous materials because they are shipped at elevated temperatures to facilitate loading and unloading, are in general service tank cars. Other products on the train include gypsum wallboard, pulpboard, distillers mash, corn, lumber, and scrap paper.

CSX Operations personnel, in cooperation with first responders and other officials, are working to remove unaffected cars as safely and quickly as possible. The product in the tank car continues to burn, making it unsafe to set up any transfer operation. The cause of the derailment is under investigation by the company and officials of the Federal Railroad Administration.