Sulphur-train crashes in Littleton, Colorado

January 25, 2009 by Walter Schneider.

Highlands Ranch Herald, Colorado, USA

Train crashes in Littleton

By Holly Cook
Published: 01.19.09

A freight train carrying molten sulfur derailed at approximately 11:30 p.m.Jan. 16 in downtown Littleton, causing a non-hazardous chemical spill and disrupting light rail service at Littleton’s downtown station.

No injuries were reported.

The derailment marks the second in Littleton in 13 months.

The train was going 44 mph in a 45 mph zone, igniting numerous small flash fires beside the tracks, Littleton police said. The fires were quickly extinguished by firefighters.

There were three locomotives pulling the 68-car freight train bound from Bonneville, Wyo., to Galveston, Texas, according to Gus Melonas, spokesman for Burlington Northern/Santa Fe.

Three of the 17 cars carrying the chemical were punctured and expelled about 100 gallons of liquid sulfur that congealed in the cold air, according to Melonas.

Molten sulfur does not pose a risk to the public, according to Littleton’s HazMat Team Coordinator, Jim Olsen.

It emits a pungent odor typically described as a “rotten egg” smell, but is not toxic….(Full Story)

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folc.ca: The reporter writing the article should have asked herself why, if sulphur is not dangerous and if it poses no risk to the public, a Hazmat coordinator was involved with the derailment of a sulphur train and the resulting fires.

Liquid sulphur is dangerous, so that precautions must be taken when opening the dome lids on tanker cars that carry it.  The  “pungent odor typically described as a “rotten egg” smell, but is not toxic” is in fact very toxic at relatively low concentrations.  The smell the author of the article described is not the smell of burning sulphur but the smell of hydrogensulfide, a gas that may be contained in liquid sulphur and often reaches deadly concentrations in the overhead space of enclosed sulphur-storage vessels.  That even happens in enclosed buildings used for the storage of solid sulphur, for which reason large-capacity storage spaces for solid sulphur are usually not closed off, so that the relatively small quantities of hydrogensulfide gases that tend to accumulate are less likely to reach deadly concentrations.

The gas that Holly Cook should have been concerned about is sulphur dioxide, a gas emitted by fires that burn sulphur, as surely as wood-, coal- or oil-fires emit carbon dioxide from the carbon they consume.  There is one big difference between sulphur fires and fires that consume carbon.

Carbon dioxide is relatively benign, for which reason there are no hesitations over using it in carbonated drinks, such as champaign, beer, pop or sodawater, while sulphur dioxide, even in very low concentrations, is deadly to anything living: plants, insects, animals, birds and people.  It is so deadly that burning a very small amount of sulphur (no more than what would fit into the lid of a shoe-polish tin) in a closed room will will produce enough sulphur dioxide to kill off all parasites infesting that room.  That is what sulphur once was commonly used for, after which it was necessary to thoroughly ventilate the room so that people could enter it without danger to their health and lives.

Sulphur dioxide, made by burning sulphur, is useful for fumigating buildings, holds of ships and similar places, for the destruction of mosquitoes and of insects in grain ami seed ; but the tarnishing effect of the gas on metals requires that care be exercised in using this substance in houses. Seeds for planting should not be fumigated with sulphur dioxide, as their germinating power is injured, and often in face completely destroyed, by this process.

Source: Insect pests of the Lesser Antilles (1912)

Author: Ballou, H. A. (Henry Arthur), 1872-1937
Subject: Insect pests — Antilles, Lesser
Publisher: Bridgetown, Barbados : Commissioner of Agriculture
Year: 1912
Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT

The quoted excerpt is from a text file of that book that is available online.

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Sulfur dioxide.  This gas holds first place for killing insects and vermin.

Source: The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning: A Manual for Housekeepers by Ellen H. & S. Maria Elliott Richards (Hardcover - 1897), p. 178

Industrial sulphur fires are so dangerous that fire-fighting safety-regulations call for a minimum of one two-man fire team (equipped with self-contained breathing gear) at the face of the fire, while another two-man team (also equipped with self-contained breathing gear) needs to stand by to drag back to safety any of the fire fighters at the face of the fire that should fall into any sort of trouble and need to be rescued.

There was a good reason why “Littleton’s HazMat Team Coordinator, Jim Olsen” was on the scene, and a good things that all of the sulphur fires that flared up were quickly put out.  If not, probably at least the centre of Littleton would have had to be evacuated.

(More at http://folc.ca/sulphur_storage/sulphur_poisoning.htm)

It appears that Holly Cook, the author of the Jan. 19, 2009 article on the Littleton train crash, has been had.

Posted in Derailments, Community & Industry, Explosions & Fires, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »