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Florida train carrying 30,000 gallons of propane derails near homeless camp just weeks after Ohio train derailment

'It's kind of a domino effect. The one car jumped the track and flipped, and that'll pull the next car, and so on and so on,' Robert Bounds said

MANATEE COUNTY, FLORIDA: A train in Florida carrying more than 30,000 gallons of propane fuel derailed on Tuesday, February 28, causing significant environmental concerns. Authorities stated that the train derailed while it was moving south in an industrial region to the north of Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

Robert Bounds, the chief of Southern Manatee Fire Rescue, reported on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 28 that six Seminole Gulf train cars had come off the rails close to a camp for the homeless along the border between Sarasota and Manatee counties. There have been no reports of propane leaks or casualties as a result of the derailment incident that occurred on the Sarasota-Manatee border, in contrast to the Ohio derailment that resulted in a major catastrophe. But, as crews are unloading the propane from the van, locals are advised to evacuate for their own safety. Hazmat crews are now monitoring the situation.

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'There are no physical damage to the tank other than the rollover'

Bounds stated, "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. 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," according to Fox13.

Bounds added, "There are no leaks. There are no physical damage to the tank other than the rollover, but there is no significant damage to it." Authorities stated that heavy equipment will now be brought into the area in order to pump roughly 30,000 gallons of propane out of the tanker vehicle to clear the tracks, according to WFLA.

A homeless camp may require evacuation at the time of propane load-off, and Bounds stated that officials are already making an effort to notify nearby households of the camp. "With the aid of our drone technology, we are able to fly downstream and look on the other side of the tracks and there is a homeless camp out there," Bounds stated.

"We aren't sure how many people," Bounds stated. "We couldn't visualize that from the air. We did send MSO and some other teams down there to address the people out there and to address the potential danger, and we will monitor them as well in the event we have to evacuate."

'Looks more like an explosion'

On Twitter, several individuals have reacted to the incident, with one person writing, "Why are all the trains derailing all of the sudden." Another individual who believes it to be a "explosion" wrote, "Looks more like an explosion, derailments dont push out rails that way." A third individual who anticipated this kind of scenario wrote, "Both cars carrying propane are intact. No spills. The tracks there have always been really trashed and I knew it was only a matter of time." This other person wrote, "Just look at that railroad track, it totally disintegrated."

What was the cause of the derailment?

A train derailed in Florida after one car veered off the tracks, causing a chain reaction that damaged a portion of the tracks. The precise cause of the derailment is still unknown. On the night of the incident, local officials claimed to be waiting for direction from Seminole Gulf while state railroad officials and representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation were en route to conduct an investigation.

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 stated, "We're at a stalemate right now. Until they get their crews here and they make a game plan about how they want to tackle this, there's no guesstimate on how long the scene will last," according to the Bradenton Herald. "There has been a pretty significant derailment. It will be multiple days before the tracks are clear," Kevin Van Ostenbridge, a commissioner for Manatee County stated.

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