Category Archives: Spill

Ammonia, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Evacuation, High Hazard Flammable Trains (HHFTs), Spill

LATEST DERAILMENT: South Carolina Train Derails, Spills Ammonium Nitrate

Repost from NBC News (Photo: Augusta Chronicle)
[Editor: For day-by-day updates, see WRDW-TV Augusta GA.  – RS[

Evacuation lifted following 39-car train derailment in SC

From the air workers can be seen Saturday at site of derailed train cars near Trenton, S.C. | MIKE ADAMS/SPECIAL, Augusta Chronicle

An evacuation order has been lifted for all but four homes following a 39-car train derailment in rural South Carolina on Friday night, officials said.

Derrick Becker, public information officer for the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, said no one was injured following the crash, which happened at 8:30 p.m. Friday in Trenton, but precautionary evacuations were made after officials confirmed one of the Norfolk Southern tankers was carrying anhydrous ammonia and one was carrying ammonium nitrate, according to Becker.

In total, 15 cars derailed and ammonium nitrate has spilled, according to the South Carolina Emergency Management Division’s Twitter account. No harmful spills were detected by Aiken County Hazmat officials who responded to the scene, Becker said.

Aiken County Hazmat officials were assisting at Edgefield County scene.

The train derailed after hitting a tree that had fallen on the tracks, an eyewitness told WAGT. Officials could not immediately confirm the cause of derailment or how many cars the train had all together.