Propane Tank Cars Derail Into Connecticut River Corridor, Prompting Shelter-in-Place

The tank cars lay on their sides in the snow along the Willimantic River, some half-buried in the icy water, their orange hazmat placards turned toward the tree line. On Thursday morning in Mansfield, Connecticut, the freight train that usually slips past backyards and farm fields had jumped the tracks.

This time, the cars that derailed were carrying liquid propane.

No injuries, no propane leak detected

The crash shortly after 9:20 a.m. Thursday sent a cluster of tank cars and several other freight cars off a New England Central Railroad train and into the river corridor along Stafford Road, also known as Route 32. No one was killed or hurt, and as of Saturday authorities said they had not detected any propane leaks or fires, even from four tank cars that landed partly or fully in the water.

But for a small town 25 miles east of Hartford — and less than 10 miles from the University of Connecticut’s Storrs campus — the sight of overturned propane tankers in a river was enough to trigger a hazardous-materials response, a shelter-in-place order and a multi-day operation involving scores of responders and heavy cranes.

“Fortunately, it seems under control,” Mansfield Town Manager Ryan Aylesworth said in an interview, as cleanup and recovery continued into the weekend.

What happened

Officials said the southbound freight train, which was traveling from Palmer, Massachusetts, toward Willimantic, consisted of more than 40 rail cars and two locomotives when several cars at the rear separated and derailed near 1090 Stafford Road. Mansfield Fire Chief John Roache said 13 cars detached, 10 derailed and nine rolled onto their sides.

Six of the derailed cars were loaded with liquid propane used for home heating, Roache said. At least four propane tank cars came to rest in or at the edge of the Willimantic River, a dammed section known locally as Eagleville Pond. Other derailed cars were carrying lumber, grain and a load of food-grade animal fat.

Shelter-in-place and monitoring

The propane tankers were the focus from the first moments of the response.

“There is concern for hazardous material contamination, but that has not yet been confirmed,” the town said in an emergency bulletin Thursday morning. Residents within a half-mile of the derailment were instructed to stay indoors, close windows and turn off ventilation systems.

“If you’re in that immediate area, just try and stay inside in case there is a leak,” Roache said later.

The half-mile shelter-in-place zone included at least two daycare centers with more than 100 children and roughly 30 staff members. State and local officials said the centers followed the order and kept children inside as fire crews and hazardous-materials teams established a perimeter and set up monitoring equipment.

Despite some early media reports referring to an evacuation, state and town officials repeatedly stressed that no one was being ordered out.

“The incident is under control. There is no need for evacuation at this time,” Rick Green, a spokesperson for the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, said.

Animal fat spill contained

The only confirmed spill as of Saturday did not come from a propane car. State environmental officials said a tank car loaded with food-grade animal fat — described as a grease used in industrial food processing — leaked an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 gallons onto the riverbank. Cold temperatures caused much of the material to congeal, which responders said helped them contain it with absorbent materials and prevent it from reaching open water.

Booms were laid across stretches of the Willimantic River as a precaution while sampling and visual inspections continued.

Propane, a liquefied petroleum gas, poses a different kind of threat. It is highly flammable and, at sufficient concentration, can explode if ignited, but it tends to vaporize and disperse rather than persist in soil or water. That chemistry shaped the response: teams focused on detecting any vapor leaks and preventing possible ignition, even as they reassured residents that they were not seeing dangerous gas levels.

Officials said air monitoring around the derailment site did not detect flammable or toxic gases above safety thresholds. Roache said “extensive metering” of the derailed tank cars and nearby air showed no leaks from the propane cars through at least Friday.

Investigation and disruptions

What went wrong on the tracks remained under investigation. New England Central Railroad, which operates the line, is a regional carrier owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc., a holding company that controls more than 100 short-line and regional railroads. The Federal Railroad Administration is working with the company to determine the cause of the derailment, according to state and local officials.

Investigators are expected to examine the condition of the track and roadbed along the curving river corridor, the handling and speed of the train and any equipment failures. Subfreezing temperatures can contribute to rail fractures or brittle components, and officials have noted the cold weather as a possible factor, though no official cause has been identified.

The derailment damaged a section of New England Central’s main line, halting freight operations through the area. Route 32 between Route 44 and Route 275 was also shut down and was expected to remain closed for days as cranes and heavy trucks moved into position on private land to right the derailed cars and rebuild track.

“It’s not going to be a today operation,” Roache said Thursday. “They’re going to have to get some cranes in there. It’s going to take some time.”

The location compounded the challenge. The tracks run on a narrow shelf between the river and adjacent fields and woods, leaving little room to maneuver large equipment. Town officials thanked nearby Spring Valley Farm for plowing access roads and allowing responders to stage machinery on its property.

For residents and businesses along the Route 32 corridor, the disruption was immediate. Commuters were sent on long detours, school bus routes were rerouted and local shop owners reported sharp drops in traffic as drivers avoided the area.

A familiar national concern

The Mansfield derailment comes at a time of heightened national attention to trains hauling hazardous materials through small towns and rural landscapes. Since a Norfolk Southern train carrying vinyl chloride derailed and burned in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023, federal transportation agencies have pushed new rules and advisories aimed at improving track inspections, defect detection and tank car safety.

In Ohio, 38 cars left the tracks and 11 tankers containing hazardous materials were damaged or breached. A controlled venting and burning of vinyl chloride created a towering black plume over East Palestine, and a subsequent National Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded the derailment was preventable and criticized the decision to burn the chemicals.

Nothing like that unfolded in Mansfield. The propane stayed inside its tanks. There was no plume, no fire, and no reports of chemical exposure.

But for parents who lined up outside the daycares inside the shelter-in-place zone and for residents who can now see the derailed cars from their backyards, the images were still jarring — tank cars tipped into a river that runs beneath local bridges and past fishing spots and walking trails.

As cranes methodically lifted cars back onto the rails and crews scraped congealed grease from the frozen bank, the town’s message remained the same: no leaks, no fire, no injuries. The questions now shift from immediate danger to longer-term concerns — about track maintenance on a line that has seen derailments before, about how quickly information reaches residents and about how much risk a small community is willing to accept from the hazardous-materials trains that pass just beyond its back doors.