Train Derails After Backhoe Left on Tracks
MULVANE, Kan. — A freight train carrying hazardous material caught fire Thursday after it hit a backhoe apparently parked on the tracks by vandals.
Nearly 120 people were evacuated before dawn as thick, black smoke rose from the wreckage in the rural area south of Wichita.
Officials didn’t know what the hazardous material was but feared it might be sodium hydroxide, which can cause burns and breathing difficulties, said Sedgwick County Fire Chief Gary Curmode.
Three engines and several other cars derailed, said Steve Forsberg, spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe. He said the train was headed to Los Angeles from Chicago.
The backhoe was being used by a contractor working on a nearby crossing and had been left parked several hundred feet from the tracks, Forsberg said.
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