Whitemarsh Township, located about 30 minutes north of Philadelphia, was evacuated on Monday after a 40-car freight train derailed.
The CSX train was carrying silicone pellets and various other materials that, unlike the East Palestine train derailment, pose no risk to the local community, according to law enforcement.
"As of now, the only thing that is leaking from any of the rail cars involved, is silicone pellets which pose no risk to the community," reads a Facebook post from local police.
"We are still gathering information at this time and ask you to follow us here for any important factual updates. We thank all the community partners and resources that are working with us on scene ensuring the safety of our community."
Other reports were vaguer, suggesting that it is unknown what the train was carrying. This is presumably why Hazmat teams were deployed to the scene to investigate.
As a precaution, businesses and homes were evacuated even though there is no known danger to the public, officials say. There were also no injuries reported following the derailment.
"Whitemarsh Emergency Services is investigating the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in the Plymouth Meeting section of Whitemarsh Township," reads another local police department post on Facebook.
"Precautionary evacuations have occurred at the residents and businesses closest to the scene. It is not believed that further evacuations will be needed, but we will evaluate as we know more."
(Related: Last fall, police officers in Colorado arrested a woman and put her in the back of a squad car that was parked on train tracks, only to watch the vehicle then get hit by an oncoming train.)
It no longer seems safe to live near train tracks in the United States
The incident occurred around 4:50 a.m. on tracks owned by Norfolk Southern, the company responsible for the East Palestine train derailment. More than a dozen of the cars appeared to be off the tracks, according to an Associated Press reporter.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro wrote on social media that he is aware of the crash and is responding to it by deploying state resources to the area.
"My team and I are monitoring the train derailment in Whitemarsh Twp and assisting local first responders," Shapiro tweeted. "Thank you to the residents taking precautions at the direction of local authorities. I urge you to continue following their instruction."
For some mysterious reason, freight trains in the U.S. continue to derail and make the news. By all appearances, it is no longer safe to live near train tracks because seemingly one could come off the rails at any moment unexpectedly.
"This is so easy to blame on natural causes," one commenter said in jest. "Like the hundreds of thousands who've #diedsuddenly, we are just being paranoid ... right?"
"I smell a cover-up," wrote another.
Someone else suggested that perhaps this latest train derailment does involve harsh chemicals, but that the authorities are trying to keep a lid on it just like they tried to do early on with the East Palestine derailment.
"Officials in the East Palestine catastrophe didn't disclose exactly what was on that train in a timely manner, citing 'still evaluating' exactly what Hazmats were involved," one wrote. They were stalling for time."
"It's hard for me to believe that all these NS derailments are railroad error. There has been a lot of evidence of sabotage in other industries that the climate cult has targeted. I could be way off base, however some of these accidents have appeared to be suspicious. And, everyone involved continues to play the game of finger-pointing."
More related news about America's crumbling infrastructure can be found at Collapse.news.
Sources for this article include:
Please contact us for more information.