AUGLAIZE COUNTY — A train derailment is under investigation in Auglaize County.
Around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, first responders were called out to a reported train derailment on Santa Fe-New Knoxville Road near State Route 65, WLIO in Lima reported. Five cars were off-line from the train.
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Three of the five cars were empty flatbeds and the other two were hopper cars that had non-hazardous substances inside, the Auglaize County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) confirmed.
The Indiana & Ohio Railway Company responded to the scene and hired a derailment crew from R.J. Corman Railroad Group to help with the clean-up and re-railing process, WLIO reported.
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EMA Director Troy Anderson assured residents that the materials in the derailed cars were not hazardous and posed no threat to the area.
“The chemical was fertilizer. Like farming fertilizer, powdered or pellet-type material. So it was a non-hazardous substance and they had a clean-up crew, a vac truck basically, came in that would clean up and suck up and put everything back to normal,” Anderson told WLIO. “So again, the fertilizer wasn’t impacting the ground, or it impacted the ground as far as laying on the ground but as far as getting down into the waterway, none of that.”