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Author
National Transportation Safety Board
Title
Railroad Accident Report: Derailment of Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad Company's Train No. 20 With Resultant Fire and Tank Car Ruptures, Crescent City, Illinois, June 21, 1970.
Coporate
National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, DC
Report
NTSB-RAR-72-2, March 29, 1972, 46 p.
Keywords
accidents | railroad accidents | investigations | gasoline | propane | explosions | fire fighting | fire fighters | injuries | siding
Identifiers
liquefied petroluem gas; tank car steel; brittle fractures; ductile fracture; hotobx
Abstract
Train No. 20, an eastbound freight train of the Toledo, Peoria and Western RailroadCompany, consisting of a four-unit diesel-electric locomotive and 109 cars derailed the 20th to the 34th cars,inclusive, at the west switch of the siding in Crescent City, Illinois, at about 6:30 a.m. on June 21, 1970. Included in the 15 derailed cars were nine tank cars loaded with liquefied petroleum gas. During the derailment one of the tank cars was punctured, and the leaking propane was immediately ignited, engulfing the other tank cars in the fire. A series of explosions of the remaining tank cars occurred, beginning about 1 hour following the derailment, resulting in the injury of 66 persons and the destruction of a number of buildings within the town of Crescent City.