Earlier today in Rosedale, Maryland, a freight train hit a garbage truck derailed near Baltimore. The crash left significant damage to both the area and the train.
While industrial buildings were damaged and a 20-block area evacuated, no deaths resulted from the crash, only injuries to the truck driver according to USA Today. The engineer and conductor of the 45-car train were not harmed, even after 15 cars derailed, two of them exploding in flames. Damaged areas include industrial buildings, warehouses, and businesses.
Some time after the crash, Baltimore county officials identified the chemicals burning in the fire as flourocylcic acid and terephaelic acid, both safe, non-toxic chemicals. The freight train was on its way from Selkirk, New York to Waycross, Georgia. However, CSX said earlier that one car was carrying non-toxic sodium chlorate, a hazardous material that is commonly used to bleach paper and as an herbicide. As a thick plume of black smoke emerged from the scene of the crash and was visible for miles, it covered the eastern part of the city of Baltimore, raising residents’ concerns according to Reuters.
A Dunkin Donuts employee, Tawan Rai described the blast, flames, and smoke saying"…the whole building shook and there was just dust everywhere," according to The Huffington Post. He added that no immediate damage to the building or windows occured but the blast’s intensity was shocking. "I went outside and people were rushing there, the police officers, fire trucks," he said. Additionally, The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to the crash site to investigate shortly after the crash around 2 p.m. today.