Train derailment causes Ohio fire

Fifty train cars derailed Friday night on a freight route from Illinois to Pennsylvania, sparking a fire and prompting evacuation orders in the Ohio village of East Palestine. The train included 150 cars, and 20 of them carried hazardous materials. While regional meteorologists say they saw smoke from the entangled, burning cars on their weather radar, no injuries have been reported.

What caused the derailment? As of Saturday evening, the cause of the incident remained unclear, and the National Transportation Safety Board began an investigation. Residents within a mile of the fire were ordered to evacuate by village officials. Firefighters were pulled back from the immediate vicinity of the burning cars, and officials instead used drone surveillance to watch the fire. 

Dig deeper: Listen to Steve West’s commentary on The World and Everything in It podcast about how trains capture our imagination and point to our true home.