300 tons of oil spilled in fuel train derailment in Russia's center

The spilled fuel endangers the ecological safety of the center of Russia, including Moscow

Twenty-four tank cars of oil fuel derailed and overturned in the Tver region of Russia. The accident happened yesterday night, at about 8:05 p.m. Moscow time. The train counted 60 tank cars in total. Ten cars, containing 60 tons of black oil each, overturned as a result of the derailment. The fuel started leaking from only two tank cars at first, but then proceeded on to other cars, a spokesman for the Russian EMERCOM said.

According to preliminary estimations, some 300 tons of fuel oil poured out of the cars as a result of the railway accident in the Tver region of Russia. Two rescue trains and 120 employees of emergency services arrived to the site of the accident at night to liquidate consequences of the accident. Rescue trains pumped out the spilled fuel. Rescuing operations will last for not less than 48 hours, Echo of Moscow radio station said.

”The train derailment posed a danger to soil and water reservoirs in the area. The river that is flowing not far from the site of the accident supplies Moscow with drinking water,” a spokesman for Russian emergency services, Vyacheslav Vasiliev said.

The tragedy luckily left no victims or considerable financial damage. “I am not talking about the environmental damage here, of course. However, oil spills often lead to massive fires, which are very hard to extinguish,” Vyacheslav Vasiliev said. “The spilled oil has already polluted a small river nearby, about only 100-150 meters off the crash site. The rehabilitation of the environment will probably take a month,” the specialist added.

Special enclosures will be put up around the site of the accident to prevent oil fuel from flowing into rivers and lakes.

The fuel train supposedly derailed because of rainy weather: the damp ground resulted in minor deformities of the railroad bed. The version of a terrorist act is completely excluded, a source from the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry told Interfax. The spilled oil fuel belonged to a private enterprise and was meant to be exported, Newsru said.