GASSED: The True Story of a Toxic Train Derailment

Residents continue to question assurances of safety, concerned about their long-term health and the chemical smells in the Alberton area during visits. Pictured: decon station near the spill site (EPA photo)

More residents push back against assurances of safety, increasingly concerned about their long-term health and the chemical smells in the Alberton area during visits. Pictured: Frenchtown Fire Station 5 near Petty Creek (Paul Manson photo)

As the Techs consider how to tackle the remaining 60,000lbs of liquid chlorine in Car 3, health officials try to allay residents’ growing concerns about their health. Pictured: schematic for chlorine offloading.

One last discovery is made three days after the spill: an entire neighborhood has been left behind in the Exclusion Zone. Pictured: Sawmill Gulch/Cyr to the Spill

On Day 4 of the spill, the EPA finally has access to the spill site, in what becomes a day of disturbing discoveries. Pictured: the EPA at the spill site, investigating potassium cresylate in the ditch.

In the early days of the Alberton chlorine spill, the Environmental Protection Agency is denied access to the spill site by incident command and Montana officials. But why? Pictured: Tim Murphy (MT SERC) and Jim Greene (MT DES)

Residents visit the Exclusion Zone to feed or rescue animals left behind, with some reporting that the visit makes them ill. Pictured: Horses left behind in the Hot Zone, attended by responders.

The night after the spill, people in the west end of the Evacuation zone complain of smells and symptoms, but they remain not evacuated. And while responders prepare for a long evacuation, residents grow concerned over animals left behind. Pictured: schematic of tank cars

In the aftermath of the toxic crisis of April 11, responders take a breath to assess the day, and we take pause to evaluate the response. Pictured: Map of the Exclusion Zone

The Missoula Hazmat team finally enters the spill site, along with a team from MRL, who have already been there. Meanwhile, the gas still drifts, causing more late evacuations. Pictured: site illustration of tank cars  

The Missoula Hazmat team conducts a recon to find the spill site, still not knowing its location; meanwhile, the gas continues to expand to the east, prompting more evacuations. Pictured: gas cloud near Alberton, Montana.

The conclusion of the initial evacuation of the Alberton area from a toxic chlorine gas release. Pictured: Cyr to Frenchtown

A cloud of toxic gas overcomes the town of Alberton, Montana. Pictured: Spill to Petty Creek

In the first hour of the spill, 911 is overwhelmed and emergency responders are sent to the wrong location. Pictured: Petty Creek to Huson

We take a brief pause for some backstory. First, we drop in on a resident of Alberton, Lucinda Hodges, who has found a life for her family amid the history and beauty of western Montana—a life abruptly threatened by a chlorine gas cloud. We also examine how well responders are  prepared for a worst-case scenario.    

The chemistry of liquid chlorine converting to a gas dictates how the gas spreads, and drivers on the highway are among the first to encounter the toxic cloud. Pictured: Jack Rabbit II test. Photograph courtesy Andrew Byrnes, Utah Valley University, 2016.

When their freight train crashes outside Alberton, Montana, two Montana Rail Link engineers, as well as transients on the train, struggle for their lives in the face of a massive cloud of chlorine gas. Pictured: Spill to Petty Creek

A short intro to the podcast of my two-book series GASSED: The True Story of a Toxic Train Derailment, which documents the 1996 Alberton, Montana, USA, train derailment and chemical spill. The catastrophe resulted in the largest release of chlorine gas in US railroad history, and injured hundreds, both acutely and chronically.