Two people were killed and two were injured in northern Arkansas early on Sunday when two Union Pacific freight trains carrying toxic substances collided, Arkansas State Police said, according to The Associated Press.
The victims were crew members aboard the trains, which collided head-on about 2:30 a.m. CDT in the community of Hoxie, about two hours northeast of Little Rock, authorities said, the AP reported. A resulting fire took about seven hours to extinguish, according to Union Pacific spokesman Brandon Morris.
Union Pacific officials declined to comment on Sunday afternoon, referring questions to the National Transportation Safety Board officials expected to take over the investigation, according to the AP.
About 500 people were briefly evacuated from nearby homes while the trains burned, said Kendell Snyder, spokesman for the Arkansas Office of Emergency Management, the AP reported.
"The fire involved diesel and also there was a tank car that ruptured and it contained an (unknown) alcoholic beverage," Snyder said, adding that there were no other leaks, according to the AP.
Snyder said diesel fuel from the trains' fuel tanks and some type of alcoholic beverage being transported caught on fire, according to the AP.
"There were some additional hazardous materials on the trains as part of the cargo, but I don't know what those products were," he said, the AP reported. "I do know that they were not compromised in the fire."
Michael Hiller, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the collision involved a train with two locomotives and 86 cars and another with two locomotives and 92 cars, according to the AP.
The first train was northbound on a single main track when the second train, which was southbound, collided with it, he said, the AP reported. Hiller said they were operating on the same track.
Hiller said the cause of the accident has not yet been determined and he expects investigators to be on the scene about a week gathering evidence, according to the AP.
"We will be looking at train signal information," Hiller said, the AP reported. "We're going to be looking at the train braking, the railroad track and inspection information. We'll be looking at train operations and how the crew operated the train."
The residents returned home and most roads, blocked during the fire, were reopened by midday on Sunday, police said, according to the AP.
