The Daily Mail, Marcus Constantino / AP
Derailed oil tanker train cars burn near Mount Carbon, W.Va., Monday, Feb. 16, 2015. A CSX train carrying more than 100 tankers of crude oil derailed in a snowstorm, sending a fireball into the sky and threatening the water supply of nearby residents, authorities and residents said Tuesday.
Published Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015 | 9:50 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015 | 9:51 a.m.
MOUNT CARBON, W.Va. — A fire triggered by the derailment of a train carrying crude oil is smoldering for a third day in southern West Virginia.
State public safety division spokesman Larry Messina said Wednesday that the fire was 85 percent contained.
The train carrying 3 million gallons of North Dakota crude left the tracks Monday in the town of Mount Carbon. The oil leaked into a tributary of the Kanawha River, sent fireballs shooting hundreds of feet into the sky and demolished one home.
The cause is under investigation.
On Monday, the train was bound for an oil shipping depot in Yorktown, Virginia, along the same route where three tanker cars plunged into the James River in Lynchburg, Virginia, prompting an evacuation last year.
Contributors include Joan Lowy in Washington, D.C.; Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana; and Pam Ramsey in Charleston, West Virginia. Mattise reported from Charleston.
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