Arizona Evacuees Go Home as Toxic Freight Burns Out
VALENTINE, Ariz. — Residents of three rural Arizona communities were allowed to return to their homes Tuesday, after a fire aboard a derailed freight train loaded with hazardous materials burned itself out.
Twenty-seven cars of the 70-car Santa Fe train flipped off the tracks near here early Monday, and 11 of the cars were engulfed in flames after several explosions, officials said. Authorities allowed the chemicals to burn rather than risk contaminating the ground by dousing the flames with water.
As toxic smoke from the burning chemicals filled the air, at least 250 residents of the small northwestern Arizona towns of Valentine, Hackberry and Truxton, along old U.S. Route 66, were evacuated.
Authorities said there were no injuries to humans, but at least one cow and several birds were killed by the fumes.
Santa Fe Railroad spokesman Tom Buckley said the cause of the pre-dawn derailment had not yet been determined.
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