Lawtell Train Derailment: Transportation of Highly Flammable and Corrosive Chemicals Between Lake Charles and New Orleans

... #ad▼

Gov. Jindal Addresses train derailment in Lawtell in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.

Police and firefighters responded about 3:30 p.m. Sunday when at least 26 cars derailed in Lawtell, Louisiana about 60 miles west of Baton Rouge.

There are no fatalities and no injuries, but three cars are leaking three different chemicals. One car is leaking a lubricant oil, one car is leaking Dodecanol, and one car is leaking the highly corrosive substance Sodium Hydroxide, also known as caustic soda or lye.

Air monitors have not detected any air quality issues.

In all 23 train cars derails, and 14 contained “regulated substance” that are harmful or toxic. Two derailed train cars contain a highly toxic, flammable, and carcinogenic substance known as vinyl chloride monomer have damage to their exteriors, but no signs of leaks. The cars with the vinyl chloride monomer are causing the greatest concern of all the train cars that are derailed.

About 100 homes were evacuated near the crash scene.

Union Pacific has set up a hotline for those affected: 1-877-877-2567. The rail company will be covering costs for affected residents.

No mention of the derailment was mentioned on the official Twitter account of Union Pacific as of early Monday morning.

UnionPacificTwitter
Screen shot of Union Pacific Twitter account Monday morning.


View Larger Map


View Larger Map

The railroad appears to carry some very long freight trains.

FILE VIDEO: NS 9497 (C40-9W): Lawtell, LA “Jul 22, 2010”


Stay informed with news from The Cardinal’s Emergencies Behind the Scenes Facebook page — Facebook.com/CardinalEmergencies. Includes links to favorite public safety and emergency rescuers and product manufacturers and safety companies that have facebook pages. Submit your pictures or just stay up-to-date on with fire, rescue, EMS and police photo galleries. Please add your public safety photo to the wall album — go direct to the Arlington Cardinal Emergencies Behind the Scenes photos. For a list of all of The Cardinal Facebook fan pages, go to Arlingtoncardinal.com/about/facebook …

Arlington Heights Fire Engine

Search Amazon …

Search for products sold on Amazon:

Arlingtoncardinal.com is an Amazon Associate website, which means that a small percentage of your purchases gets paid to Arlingtoncardinal.com at no extra cost to you. When you use the search boxes above, any Amazon banner ad, or any product associated with an Amazon banner on this website, you help pay expenses related to maintaining Arlingtoncardinal.com and creating new services and ideas for a resourceful website. See more info at Arlingtoncardinal.com/AdDisclosure