The Associated Press
RACELAND, Ky. — Residents of communities on both sides of the Ohio River were urged to stay indoors for much of Tuesday morning and schools were closed because acid fumes had leaked from a railroad car.
Hazmat teams were sampling the air around a CSX Corp. rail yard in Kentucky’s northeast corner to see if the leak had been stopped, said Buddy Rogers, a spokesman for Kentucky Emergency Management in Frankfort.
He said a vapor release was reported late Monday and a hazmat team found a small leak from a valve on a rail car loaded with hydrochloric acid. At least four responders at the scene complained of watery eyes and itchy skin. No other injuries have been reported.
No one was evacuated, Rogers said. However, people living within a mile of the rail yard in Greenup County were advised to stay indoors and keep windows closed. That order was lifted late Tuesday morning.
“The tank car, if it was leaking, is no longer leaking,” Greenup County 911 director Scott Brown said.
Across the Ohio River, residents of Ironton and Hanging Rock in southern Ohio also were urged to remain indoors with their windows closed, said Lawrence County Emergency Management Agency director Mike Boster.
Ironton city schools and one Catholic school were closed as a precaution but tests by the Ironton fire department detected no harmful vapors, Boster said.
Three people in Kentucky were examined at a hospital and released, Rogers said.