The Associated Press

SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. — Several train cars, including at least one carrying liquid propane gas, derailed and exploded south of Louisville Tuesday, shutting down a nearby highway and forcing evacuations of homes, businesses and a school, authorities said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries from the wreck that occurred about 8:50 a.m. EST, said Kentucky State Police dispatcher Joey Mattingly. The cause was under investigation.

CSX Corp. spokesman Gary Sease said the fire produced a massive column of black smoke in the mostly rural area. Television footage showed several blazing cars stacked across the rail lines and flaming liquid flowing down ditches from the mangled tanker cars.

Sease said the train — with four locomotives and 80 cars — was headed to Louisville from Birmingham, Ala. At least three cars carried liquid propane gas, he said. Forty-one cars were loaded with freight and the rest were empty, he said.

The immediate area, including Brooks Elementary School, was evacuated, said state police Maj. Lisa Rudzinsky. She did not give the radius of the affected area, which has a mixture of residential, industrial and rural properties.

Authorities also shut down an 18-mile stretch of Interstate 65, Mattingly said.

The Kentucky National Guard said it mobilized 20 to 25 soldiers and airmen to check air quality.

Bullitt County resident Daymon Strange said he was outside his home less than a half-mile from the crash site when he heard an explosion.

"I turned around and looked and there was fire at least 500 feet in the air," he said in a telephone interview. "I've never seen such a fire. It was huge."

Strange said he smelled the fumes even though they were blowing away from his home.

"You can taste it and feel it in your lungs when you go outside," he said.

It was the second fiery train crash in Kentucky in two days. On Monday, four runaway rail cars struck two parked locomotives in central Kentucky, catching fire and spilling a chemical that prompted a limited evacuation.