Fire on derailed freight train finally put out

The fire on a train carrying gasoline derailed by Monday's earthquake was finally been put out on Wednesday morning.

    The 40-car freight train, including 12 gasoline tankers , was derailed inside a tunnel in northwest China when Monday's massive earthquake struck.

    The fire had burnt about 40 hours before it was put out at 6 a.m. Wednesday on the Baoji-Chengdu railway in Huixian County, Gansu Province. Firefighters used more than 20,000 sandbags and hundreds of wet quilts to cover the north exit and vents of the tunnel, to starve the fire of oxygen.

    The Baoji-Chengdu railway is still suspended.

    "Today's job is to pour water and foam into the tunnel to prevent the fire from burning again," said Vice Minister of Railways Lu Chunfang, who is in charge of the fire control operation.

    When conditions were ripe, the derailed cars would be put on the track and moved out of the tunnel, Lu said.

    People could not enter the tunnel at the moment because of the heat, poisonous gas and the danger of explosion.

    More than 1,600 residents were evacuated, an official with the Huixian County disaster relief headquarters said.

    The heat of the blaze could be felt 100 meters away on Tuesday.

    The train just entered the tunnel in Huixian County at 2:28 p.m. on Monday when the massive quake struck. The train had been en route from Baoji, Shaanxi Province to Guangyuan, Sichuan Province, said Wang Hongtao, deputy director of the Xi'an Railway Bureau's general office.

    Huge rocks blocked the tunnel exit. The driver put on the brakes, but the train still hit the rocks at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, leading to the derailment of the locomotive and 38 carriages, Wang added.

    The locomotive caught fire first, and flames then engulfed the tankers.

    Two train drivers were injured and have been sent to hospital. They were recovering on Tuesday afternoon.

2008-05-14