'It's a little bit of hell'

22 smoldering cars pulled out; those with toxic cargo next; Heat, smoke slow battle; Fire, water rupture keep downtown in turmoil for 3rd day

By Michael James | Sun Staff

July 21, 2001

Up for air: A Baltimore fire commander emerges from a manhole near the intersection of Howard and Lombard streets after a stint in the Howard Street Tunnel, which is filled with smoke from the CSX train fire. (Sun photo by Doug Kapustin / July 21, 2001)

Baltimore's railroad tunnel fire burned into a third night, despite the efforts of firefighters who dragged out a string of smoldering rail cars late yesterday but had to labor cautiously under a roof weakened by a water main break.

Foiled attempts to extinguish the blaze spurred frustrated federal and local officials to call in help yesterday from derailment specialists and a Coast Guard chemical strike force, but the fire continued to stymie workers and leave uncertain when the downtown crisis will end.

Firefighters got a glimpse of hope last night, when they used three locomotives to pull out 22 smoldering cars from the north end of the tunnel.

Altogether, 28 of the train's 60 cars had been removed as of 1 a.m., and five of the eight containing hazardous chemicals were expected to be pulled out early this morning.

What caused the derailment - and the subsequent fire - remains unclear. But fire officials say they believe the blaze started in train Car 52, which was hauling tripropylene, a caustic and flammable chemical used in making detergents and plastic.

Investigators say tripropylene might have leaked from the car as a result of the derailment and a spark ignited the chemical. Officials are considering whether the spark was caused by the braking of the train.

As the investigation and clean-up continued yesterday, officials described the work as slow and precarious.

Among the latest setbacks was yesterday's discovery that a break in a century-old water main - which so far has spilled more than 60 million gallons - could cause structural instability in the tunnel's smoke-blackened roof. After dire warnings from firefighters, work on the water main was suspended because of fears that the tunnel roof might collapse.

Intense heat stopped firefighters last night from entering some parts of the 1.7-mile tunnel, where many of the freight train's cars have been glowing red-hot since Wednesday's accident. At least one of two cars carrying hydrochloric acid has leaked.

"It's a little bit of hell," said Baltimore Fire Lt. Bill Hall, who with a team of other firefighters braved the heat and smoke after descending into the Howard Street Tunnel through a manhole yesterday.

The worst case scenario

The accident has left city officials reeling, as they struggle to contain an incident with far-reaching ramifications.

"This is the disaster that [emergency planners] and the Fire Department always knew they couldn't quite deal with," said Terry Harris of the city's Clean-Up Coalition, a citizen group that monitors chemical pollution. "It's been a worry - a chemical tanker train fire in a tunnel is almost a worst case scenario."

The derailment has caused problems far beyond the darkness of the tunnel, not the least of which is a snag in the East Coast's information superhighway. Technicians continued yesterday trying to patch fiber-optic cables damaged in the derailment that transport huge amounts of Internet data, e-mail and cell phone service.

A Silicon Valley company that studies cyberspace called the fiber-optic cabling through Baltimore "the I-95 of Internet traffic into and out of Washington" and said the accident has caused the worst data-flow congestion in the past several years.

Other problems hit closer to home.

The Baltimore Orioles postponed another game last night - the third since the derailment - because of public safety concerns. Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos said through his chief operating officer that he might try to recoup from CSX any losses resulting from cancellations.

The Orioles estimate they could lose $3 million to $4.5 million if the games are not played. "We're obviously going to keep all our financial options open," said Orioles chief operating officer Joe Foss.

Conditions at the scene have been so dangerous that officials with the National Transportation Safety Board haven't been able to do a full assessment of the accident, saying it's too dangerous to go into the tunnel.

"Right now, that's hampering us," said Keith D. Holloway, an NTSB spokesman.