On Friday 28 February, a Czech train carrying the flammable and toxic substance benzene derailed and went up into flames. There was a serious risk of environmental hazard. Now that the emergency has been put under control, it seems that there is no serious environmental damage. However, a lot of questions about the why and how remain unanswered.
The weekend has allowed for some of the dust to settle, and more things have become clear. Initial Czech media reports explained that five wagons and the locomotive of the train had gone up into flames after a derailment and subsequent fire. It seems that that may not be entirely accurate.
For example, the locomotive escaped the fire and continued driving for some distance. The wagons were uncoupled from the locomotive at some point – allowing the driver and the locomotive to get away unharmed. There were also 15 wagons, rather than five, that caught on fire.
Czech firefighters published a video of their efforts to control the situation:
What caused the accident?
At the same time, it remains unclear what exactly caused the fire, derailment and decoupling of the locomotive. According to a market source, there are various accounts of the order of events. Some say that the wagons derailed and then caught on fire, whereas others claim that they first caught on fire and then derailed.
“Some Czech tabloids say that the train was going too fast over a switch, after which it derailed”, RailFreight.com’s market source says. “But the line was renovated some years ago, so you can drive quite fast there.” The total damage of the accident is estimated at 125 million Czech crowns (approximately 5 million euros).
No serious environmental damage
The upside of the story is that there is likely no serious environmental damage, according to the market source, even though hundreds of tonnes of the toxic benzene burned for hours. Nearby residents were only recommended to keep their windows closed until the fire would be extinguished. The train carried a total of 1,000 tonnes of benzene, and 145 thousand litres have been pumped out of the tanker wagons over the weekend.
Czech authorities seem to be careful in their assessment of the situation: A spokeswoman for the Czech Environmental Inspectorate said that the extent of the environmental damage cannot currently be predicted. There is fear that the substance, which can cause cancer, could have leaked into the groundwater.