Train Derailment Leads to Oil Tanker Explosion in West Virginia

Image from source, NBC News

During the oddly partisan wrangling over the Keystone XL Pipeline in Congress (why they have such a woody for it, I have no idea), the specter of transit disasters via truck and train have been flogged quite a bit. Sure, they'll say, there's the occasional oil pipeline spill, but it's actually safer than transporting the stuff in any other way. Because trains, they go boom. And train just went boom. I don't have my tinfoil hat out of my storage pod yet, but it makes me go hmmmm.

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Fayette County, West Virginia, Train Derailment Sparks House Fire

A freight train carrying crude oil derailed Monday in southern West Virginia, causing an explosion that set at least one house on fire, according to authorities. Several of the train cars spilled oil into the Kanawha River, east of Montgomery, and caught fire, prompting an evacuation order for a mile-and-a-half around the area where the train skipped the tracks at about 1:30 p.m. ET, according to NBC affiliate WSAZ. Only one train car, of 109, actually fell into the river. . .

Read more at: NBC News