The Florida Department of Transportation is investigating after at least five railcars and two propane tankers derailed near the Sarasota County-Manatee County line in Florida on Tuesday.
Multiple authorities including Hazmat Crews responded to the train derailment which carried sheet rock and propane. One of the tankers is carrying over 30,000 gallons of propane fuel.
Southern Manatee Fire Rescue Chief Robert Bounds told WFLA that the tanker carrying 30,000 gallons of propane was not leaking, and the accident scene was safe. No injuries were reported.
“The scene is as safe as it can be right now. Short of that tank being on its side, there is no problem,” Bounds said.
“We have drones. We run the hazmat team for the county of Manatee and we were in the air with our drone which has thermal capabilities,” Bounds told Fox13.
“We were able to look at the tank and ascertain the levels of the tank from the outside, it’ll show up different colors if anything is actually leaking. There are no leaks. There are no actual physical damage to the tank other than the rollover, but there is no significant damage to it,” he continued.
Crews will continue to assess the situation as cleanup efforts begin.
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Since the tanker is undamaged, crews will not try to offload the propane, instead lifting the car with the contents within the tanker.
According to Bounds, a 100-foot section of the railroad is “snapped in half” and uprooted.
“It’s kind of a domino effect,” he said. “The one car jumped the track and flipped, and that’ll pull the next car, and so on and so on until the inertia stops enough that the last car just unbuckled.”
Bounds said that an effort to upright the propane tanker would occur in the coming days.
According to Bounds, crews monitoring the site are equipped with gas-monitoring equipment and local businesses have been notified about the derailment.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office is providing security near the site.
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