By Associated Press
Beloit AL – Work continued Monday to clean up the wreckage from a freight train that went off the tracks Sunday in Dallas County, briefly closing roads as authorities worried about hazardous material on the derailed cars.
Seventeen cars on the M&B Railroad train carrying vinyl chloride derailed Sunday afternoon in the Beloit community off Alabama 22 south of Selma.
Dallas County sheriff's deputies and state troopers blocked traffic near the accident Sunday afternoon, but reopened the roads later in the day. Law enforcement officers told The Selma Times-Journal that roads in the area may be closed at times over the next few days as the wreckage is cleared.
Dallas County Emergency Management Agency officials and railroad representatives were on the scene shortly after the accident and briefly considered evacuating nearby residents. No evacuation was ordered.
Vinyl chloride is a gas that is described as being "extremely flammable" and unstable, according to the Emergency Response Guidebook.
M&B senior operations manager, Don Vincent, said the cause of the accident had not been determined.
"There are a million things that could have gone wrong," Vincent told the Selma newspaper.
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Information from: Times Journal, http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/