Train Derailment Prompts Illinois Town to Evacuate

ABC News’  Alicia Tarancon reports:

Residents of a small Illinois town awoke to explosions and a fiery blaze when a freight train crashed early today, prompting the evacuation of all homes.

After the train derailed a half -mile east of the village of Tiskilwa, authorities advised all 800 residents to leave. Les Grant, spokesman for the Bureau Country Emergency Management, said that 20 cars of the train derailed at 2:20 a.m.

Officials say some of the cars were carrying ethanol, which may have ignited causing some of the other tankers to get dangerously hot. The flames and smoke could seen for miles, according to ABC News station WLS.

Firefighters used foam and water to cool down and extinguish the flames on these tankers.

No injuries were reported.

“I heard one explosion,” resident Cynnandra Luttrell told WLS. “It sounded like a gunshot kind of, but louder. I know there was several, but I only heard one of them.”

“As we were leaving there was another explosion,” said resident Dylan Carlson. “You could see flames over some of the houses.” The National Transportation Safety Board has launched a “Go-Team” to investigate the cause of the accident.