COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ethanol has received its share of media attention the past several years, even more with last week’s 17-car train derailment just north of downtown Columbus.

The mile-long train, which included two locomotives and 98 freight cars, derailed on the Norfolk Southern Corp. tracks between E. 11th and E. 5th avenues at 2 a.m. July 11, sending fireballs into the air. People living 20 miles from the incident could spot the flames. The derailment occurred just three blocks south of the Ohio State Fairgrounds.

At the time of the explosion there were 90,000 gallons of ethanol on the train. Three ethanol cars (totaling 20,000 gallons) and one car hauling wheat caught fire. The train was a little more than a mile long and was carrying 12,319 tons of material, including ethanol, styrene monomer, grain and corn syrup. Following the derailment there was an explosion and four train cars caught fire.

The train was en route to Linwood, N.C., from Chicago. The fire was finally extinguished the following morning.

“We’re grateful that this did not occur in a more populated area near more residents,” said David Whiting, assistant chief of the Columbus Fire Division. “The time it occurred, where it occurred, were very good things for us because we didn’t have a whole lot of people around, businesses were closed and we were able to take care of getting our firefighters back and evacuating a small number of people.”

Two people were injured while walking on the tracks to investigate when a second explosion occurred.

Immediately following the accident, about 100 residents who lived within a one-mile radius of the derailment were evacuated by firefighters, who decided to let the fire burn itself out. Whiting noted the burning ethanol, an alcohol compound commonly used in fuel, posed no environmental or health concerns.

Within two days of the derailment the train derailment and explosion was cleared and services was restored to the lines. 

Investigators said the train was traveling below the speed limit when the incident occurred and the crew did not notice any problems with the track. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the cause of the fire.

Roughly 29.4 million carloads of freight are hauled every year across more than 140,000 miles of rail in the United States. Of that, 1.8 million carloads are categorized as hazardous materials. Last year more than 325,000 carloads of ethanol were hauled over those lines.

“Freight train accidents are uncommon, given the volume of freight that is transported around the country by trains,” said Patricia Reilly, a spokesperson for the American Assoc. of Railroads. “Last year was one of the safest years ever for U.S. railroads.”

Ethanol is also known as pure alcohol, grain alcohol or drinking alcohol. It is used as a solvent in various industrial processes and chemical reactions, as well as in alcoholic beverages, and as a fuel. It is highly volatile, and will catch fire if heated above 79 degrees Fahrenheit and an ignition source is applied to it.

The recent record-breaking heat wave through the center and eastern United States had also contributed to several cases of rail line bucking as a result of track expansion, but there is no evidence this accident resulted from the weather conditions. Officials say that 22 trains a day travel these same tracks.