• Fire rages for 10 hours after Baltimore chemical freight train crash

    MSNBC's Thomas Roberts reports on a train derailment in Baltimore County, MD., that sparked a huge fire.

    By Alastair Jamieson, Andrew Rafferty and Tracy Connor, NBC News

    A huge fire outside Baltimore, triggered by the collision of a freight train carrying chemicals and a trash truck, raged for 10 hours before being brought under control, officials said early Wednesday.

    A dark, thick plume of smoke could be seen for miles after two of 15 derailed cars from a CSX-owned train caught fire.

    The blazing cars were carrying terephthalic acid and fluoroacetic acid, which Baltimore County Fire Chief John Hohman said are not toxic inhalants. However, residents were encouraged to avoid excessive exposure to the smoke.

    Patrick Semansky / AP

    A fire burns at the site of a CSX freight train derailment Tuesday in White Marsh, Md.

    The only person injured in the accident was the driver of the truck, John J. Alban, Jr., 50, who is in serious but stable condition, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz told NBC affiliate WBAL.

    Two CSX employees on the train were not injured, according to authorities.

    Related: Photos from the crash site

    The fire, which began at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, was finally declared to be under control at 11:41 p.m. according to Capt. Bruce Schultz of the Baltimore County Office of the Fire Marshal. He said officers were maintaining a fire watch to monitor any flare-ups or hot spots.

    The blast could be felt for miles, and many area residents said they initially thought they were experiencing an earthquake. Witnesses told WBAL that windows were blown out from nearby homes and businesses.

    Rosedale resident Elaine Smith told WBAL she felt an explosion. "I really was scared," she said. "I've never seen a cloud like that in my life."

    The crash occurred in a mostly industrial section of Rosedale along U.S. 40, in the 7500 block of Lake Drive.

    The train was moving southbound when it collided with a waste-hauling truck. The train continued moving for several hundred feet before 15 cars derailed. An explosion quickly followed, sending a huge cloud of black smoke into the air.

    Alban is a retired firefighter with the Baltimore County Fire Department, as well as a volunteer at the Hyde Park Volunteer Fire Co, fire officials told reporters.

    A National Transportation Safety Board team, led by Robert Sumwalt, will investigate the derailment. 

    NBC News' Jay Blackman contributed to this report.

    This story was originally published on Wed May 29, 2013 6:30 AM EDT

  • Freight train derailment in Maryland kills 2

    On Monday night two college students died during a freight train accident in Ellicott City, Md. NBC's Brian Williams reports.



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    By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

    At least two people were killed when a freight train hauling coal derailed west of Baltimore late Monday.

    Police and fire department personnel responded to an emergency call at about 11:45 p.m. Monday and reported that 21 of the train’s 80 cars flipped over and fell from a bridge in Ellicott City, Md, a city just 14 miles from Baltimore. The cars contained coal but were not carrying any hazardous materials.

    The CSX train left from Grafton, W. Va., and was bound for Baltimore.

    “Many of those train cars fell onto automobiles, literally fell onto automobiles with the coal, so you have massive piles of coal and heavy train cars on top of automobiles,” Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said.

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    The victims were identified Tuesday as Elizabeth Nass, 19, and Rose Mayr, 19, both of Ellicott City. Howard County police said the young women were sitting on the ledge of a bridge with their backs to the side of the passing train at the time of the derailment, but were not railroad employees; officers did not know why they were there.

    Both Mayr and Nass both tweeted and posted pictures about sitting on the bridge around 9 p.m.

    Their bodies were found buried under a pile of coal that spilled out from the open cars.

    Witnesses said the coal on the ground was about a foot high.

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    Nass attended James Madison University in Virginia. Mayr was a student at the University of Delaware, NBCWashington reported.

    The train’s three operators were not harmed in the incident, police said. Rescue crews are still working to clean up the coal and searching for more possible victims.

    “A CSX [Rail Corp.] has brought in heavy cranes to move those train cars so we can search the vehicles to see if we have any additional victims,” Ullman said. “We hope and we do pray that we do not.”

    Jim Southworth with the National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference Tuesday the operators saw and felt nothing before the train’s emergency brake was activated.

    The eastbound train had two locomotives, weighed 9,000 tons and was 3,000-feet-long.

    It fell into a parking lot near Main Street in Ellicott City. Several other streets have been closed because of the crash, Ellicott City Patch reported.

    The damaged cars are being removed from the scene. Southworth said investigators will review video taken from inside the train and conduct an inspection of the track and signal system.

    Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

    Representatives from the Maryland State Department of the Environment surveyed the scene and tentatively said that there was no serious impact on the nearby Patapsco River.

    “It could have been a lot worse when it comes to chemicals,” Ulman said.

    It’s not known what caused the derailment

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  • Freight train derails near Chicago's Midway Airport

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    By msnbc.com and NBC News

    A freight train derailed early Friday near Chicago's Midway Airport, but no injuries were reported.

    Several cars were off the tracks and one car was leaning over the overpass at 47th Street and Archer Avenue on Chicago's Southwest Side, according to NBCChicago.com. The incident occurred a half-mile north of Orange Line trains, delaying Metra trains and blocking traffic in the area, reported The Chicago Tribune.

    The cause of the derailment is under investigation, a spokesperson for BNSF Railway Co. told the Tribune.