Crescent City, IL: Fireball (Six BLEVEs)

(Satellite)

The explosions happened on June 21, 1970. 

Fred Butt commented on a railfan posting that included the grain elevator.

My first thought was that the grain elevator blew. But thenI saw that the old wood elevator was intact in the photo. And I didn't think a grain elevator could cause an explosion that big. It was caused by the derailment of tank cars carrying propane.

Two photos from daily-journal [paycount 5]

15 cars of a 108-car TP&W train derailed. "Among the 15 derailed cars were nine tanker cars, each carrying 34,000 gallons of liquefied propane, a volatile chemical. Another derailed car punctured one of the tankers, thus releasing the propane and igniting a fire." There were no fatalities, but 67 were injured. In total, six tank cars blew up. "McVey recalled witnessing one of the tank cars shooting off like a rocket coming to rest in a house after hitting a huge tree and another home....Another tank car that exploded was found a quarter mile from the wreckage in a cornfield. There were nearly 30 homes destroyed or damaged. Eighteen businesses, including the U.S. Post Office building, were destroyed. The remaining fire was left to burn out, which happened two days later."

(firehouse.com reports it was 16 cars in a 109-car train.)

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The town recalls the event every five years with a Fireball Festival. But the 50th anniversary festival in 2020 had to be postponed because of COVID-19. "The Fireball Festival is not a the celebration of the disaster, but a celebration of a community’s ability to persevere." [FireballFestival]

The town also has a display about the disaster.

firehouse.com

firehouse.com

Evidently it was the second explosion that caused the most injuries because first responders and reporters had arrived on the scene. After that one, the people learned about the power of a BLEVE (Boling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) and got back. They ended up "thermally treating" the fire. (I love that euphemism for just letting it burn itself out. It ranks up there with "energetic felling" for blowing up a bridge.) 

Two of the 18 images collected by Benjamin Light.

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b

The firehouse.com article confirms that only one tank car was compromised by the derailment. A coupler punctured the car. The other six LPG tank cars were compromised by internal pressure and heat weakened steel. I had noticed when studying tank car safety that the regulations not only addressed collision survivability but duration in a fire. The article indicated that the cars were uninsulated. I wonder if this was the wreck that added tank car safety regulations for surviving a fire as well as the wreck.

firehouse.com
The 1956 and 1962 IH front-mounted, 500-gpm fire trucks that Crescent City had to fight the fire. They still have them to fight brush fires. They now belong to a fire protection district that has four more trucks bought in 1979, 1981, 1994 and 2004.

One problem was that the fire fighting activity would soon drain the city's water tower. So they had to get tanker trucks and water, as well as additional pumpers, from other towns. "Ultimately, fire companies from 33 towns (some from as far away as Indiana) appeared with 58 pieces of equipment and 250 firefighters. There were no radio communications between fire departments at the time of the derailment or between fire and police departments. Apparatus did not have radios and no portable communications equipment existed for fire department use. Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul sent a foam truck. They informed the local firefighters that water would be unable to contain such a fire that included burning propane. n Illinois State Police sergeant in Watseka, about six miles east of Crescent City, was notified of the derailment shortly after it happened and proceeded immediately to the scene. He arrived at approximately 6:45 A.M. and sized up the situation. When he determined that a tank car was being heated by the fire and contained propane, he notified police officers in the area to evacuate the town and warned firefighters to move back to a safer location to fight the fires. His actions may have prevented serious injury and loss of life of firefighters, police officers and civilians when the propane tank cars started exploding." A house and business caught fire from the radiant heat. The town was evacuated for 36 hours. When the derailment happened around 6:30am, the first tank car simply burned. The remaining six tank cars caused BLEVEs at 7:33am, 9:20, 9:30, 9:45, 9:55 and 10:10. "Parts of tank cars were propelled in all directions, setting fires and damaging structures. In all, 10 large pieces of railcars rocketed from 200 feet to 850 feet from the derailment site." The fires for the remaining tank cars were allowed to burn, which took 56 hours. "It was reported that the force of one of the later explosions blew out building fires on Main Street, but as oxygen returned, the fires reignited." The derailment was caused by the overheating of the L-4 journal of the 20th car. Why the journal got too hot was not determined. [firehouse.com]

My speculation about tank car regulations was correct. "After several BLEVEs of this type occurred in the 1970s, the railroad industry retrofitted all tank cars carrying liquefied flammable gases by adding thermal protection, which protects against high temperatures that can weaken metal. Shelf couplers were developed to prevent cars from uncoupling vertically and head shields were fitted to protect against punctures from the couplers. Since these retrofits were completed in 1980, there have been no BLEVEs of railroad tank cars in the United States." Also the training of hazmat teams as to how to properly respond to various types of accidents was initiated. [firehouse.com]

The old wood grain elevator still stands!

Street View

The elevator has become a history of steel bins.

Street View