1978 — Feb 26, Chlorine Release when Train Derails (no train deaths), Youngstown, FL– 8

–8 Associated Press. “Chlorine Tanker Derailed.” Corbin Times-Tribune, KY. 2-27-1978, p. 7.
–8 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 445.
–8 Wikipedia. “List of Rail Accidents (1950-1999).”

Narrative Information

Wikipedia: “February 26, 1978 – Youngstown, Florida, United States: Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay Railroad freight train derails, a chlorine gas cloud, released from a punctured tank car, kills eight and injures 138. This was the first recorded major liquefied chlorine gas disaster and the cloud was some 5 km (3.1 mi) long.” (Wikipedia. “List of Rail Accidents (1950-1999).”)

Newspaper

Feb 27: “Youngstown, Fla. (AP) – Hundreds of people stayed away from their homes today as workmen began the delicate task of righting a derailed tank car that ruptured, killing eight people with a ghostlike, yellow cloud of chlorine. Eighty-eight people were injured.

“Salvage experts also had to contend with a loaded chlorine tanker, a tanker of highly volatile liquified natural gas, one filled with explosive ammonia nitrate and five others loaded with caustic chemicals.

“Workmen planned to ring the site near this small Panhandle town with a wall of earth and to smother the chlorine car with foam before trying to clean up the wreckage left by the derailment early Sunday.

“Officials planned to make air tests today before telling the 700 to 1,000 residents who were evacuated when they could return.

“Russell Gober, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said it appeared the derailment was caused by a broken rail but that was a tentative conclusion….

“The Florida dead, who were in their teens and early 20s, were exposed to the chlorine as they drove along U.S. 231, which parallels the tracks where more than 20 cars of a 120-car Atlanta & St. Andrews Railroad train jumped the tracks about 2:30 a.m. The car engines of many people choked to a stop in the gas, trapping some and forcing others to run for their lives.

“James and Madelyn Miller were among those who had to flee. Their engine stalled when they stopped for a young man waving frantically for help. The Millers said the young man was too groggy to keep up and fell behind. They did not know what happened to him.

“The final victim, a 15-year-old girl, was not found until late Sunday afternoon when a helicopter crew spotted her lying in a field across the highway from the wreck.

“The train’s engineer, Ray Shores, 53, was the last survivor to be rescued. He took to the swamp along the tracks where he found a pocket of untainted air and waited eight hurs until being rescued by a helicopter.

“In all 88 people, some of them youths who were hunting raccoons in the swamp, were taken to area hospitals after being exposed to the gas. By late Sunday, 22 of them were still hospitalized, eight in critical condition.

“Chlorine is a gaseous element often used in bleaching, water purification and other chemical processes. It reacts with moisture in the lungs, turns to an acid and eats away the lungs’ mucous membrane, suffocating its victims.” (Associated Press. “Chlorine Tanker Derailed.” Corbin Times-Tribune, KY. 2-27-1978, p. 7.)

Sources

Associated Press. “Chlorine Tanker Derailed.” Corbin Times-Tribune, KY. 2-27-1978, p. 7. Accessed 8-6-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/corbin-times-tribune-feb-26-1978-p-19/

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Wikipedia. “List of Rail Accidents (1950-1999).” Accessed 7-18-2018 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_1950-1999_rail_accidents