Tank cars loaded with thousands of gallons (liters) of highly flammable ethanol exploded and blazed through the night after a freight train derailed, killing one person in a car at a crossing, AP reported. No more smoke or flames were visible Saturday afternoon as federal investigators arrived at the scene. Hundreds of nearby homes had been evacuated. Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten said 74 of the train's 114 cars were filled with ethanol, or ethyl alcohol. At the height of the fire Friday night, 14 rail cars were ablaze, said Canadian National Railway Company spokesman Patrick Waldron. Several had continued burning into the morning as firefighters waited for the fire to burn itself out. Eighteen cars, all containing ethanol, left the tracks in the derailment about 9 p.m. Friday, Waldron said. The cause of the derailment had not been determined. Reports that it was caused by a washout of the tracks following heavy rain were «not a certainty and this remains under investigation,» Waldron said. Officials evacuated the area on the edge of Rockford, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Chicago, Friday night amid concerns about air pollution. At least 26 local fire departments had sent crews to the scene. Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said early Saturday the death was that of a female who was in a car waiting for the train to pass a crossing near the derailment site. Bergsten said three other people ran from the car when it was bombarded with flying railroad ties and they were severely burned by flaming ethanol. They were hospitalized in serious to critical condition. Two crewmen on the eastbound Canadian National train escaped injury, Waldron said. The engine crew was able to pull 64 cars away from the scene. Witnesses told the Rockford Register-Star that cars on the Chicago-bound train began hydroplaning in standing water as it approached the crossing. Some of them left the tracks moments before two of them exploded. Parts of northern Illinois may have gotten as much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain Friday, said meteorologist Gino Izzi of the National Weather Service. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, 40 to 50 miles (64 to 80 kilometers) east of Rockford, measured 3.6 inches (9.1 centimeters), a record for the date, he said. The National Transportation Safety Board sent a 14-member team to investigate. Canadian National and the Federal Railroad Administration will assist. Officials evacuated residents of about 600 homes within a half-mile (800 meters) of the derailment, Bergsten said. He said potentially toxic fumes should keep them out of their homes until environmental officials give them the green light to return. The American Red Cross set up shelters at nearby churches. «At first I thought it was a tornado because they always say a tornado sounds like a train coming,» said Jeff Tilley, a Register-Star employee who lives near the scene of the derailment. Alicia Zatkowski, a spokeswoman for ComEd, said the derailment knocked out power to about 1,000 of the Chicago-based utility's Rockford-area customers.
