Toxic Threat Lingers in S.C. Train Wreck

[Rose Siding]

GRANITEVILLE, S.C. - Toxic vapors from one of the nation's deadliest chemical spills in years will keep residents out of their homes until at least early next week as cleanup crews try to stop chlorine gas from leaking out of a wrecked train car.
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About 5,400 residents within a one-mile radius of the crash were forced to evacuate, with authorities telling people Friday they would not be allowed to return until Tuesday at earliest. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed within two miles of the wreck for fear that cool night air would cause the chlorine to settle close to the ground.

Authorities said all the deaths appeared to have been caused by the plume of gas that settled over its victims in their homes, their cars and the Avondale Mills textile plant. One of the dead was spotted by Gov. Mark Sanford, who flew over the site to survey the wreckage.
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Federal officials were investigating the cause of the wreck, but most officials were kept out of the area because of the toxic gas.

State and federal environmental officials have continued conducting air quality tests, finding either low levels or nothing at all a couple blocks away from the site. The crash site levels were higher.

"How high? We are not sure," state Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Thom Berry said. The levels exceed the monitor's limits, he said.
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