Reports and pictures of a major train derailment Tuesday afternoon near Baltimore, Md. prompted the city's Office of Emergency Management to effectively quarantine an entire zip code. Residents were told to "avoid the 21237" area after a cargo train derailed along CSX tracks behind a semi-residential neighborhood just off Interstate 95.
The event caused an explosion and a plume of dark smoke that could be reportedly felt and seen from downtown Baltimore. The incident happened near 75th Street and Lake Drive in Rosedale, Md., a few miles from the White Marsh Mall just northeast of Baltimore.
The New York Daily News reported that the cargo train hit a tractor-trailer at a railroad crossing, which caused the derailment and explosion.
Traffic has been diverted from nearby US Route 40, locally known as the Pulaski Highway, which was only just over a block from the scene of the accident. The highway parallels the tracks and acts as a major intercity alternative to adjacent I-95.
An employee of the McDonald's at the nearby junction of Pulaski Highway and Philadelphia Road (Route 7) told the Baltimore Sun, "Everything shook, the whole building shook." A worker at a local seafood company compared the feeling she had to what she felt following the Virginia earthquake in 2011 that caused the closure of the Washington Monument.
According to WJLA-TV, nearby Amtrak Northeast Regional service has not yet been affected. The area is less than one mile east of Exits 60-61 for Moravia Road and Pulaski Highway along I-95 in Baltimore County. Hazmat crews have been called in to investigate the scene of the derailment, according to WBAL. Further details on the train derailment are still unfolding and no injuries have been immediately reported.
See video of the scene below:
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