Ammonium Nitrate Disasters - Traskwood, Arkansas, 1960

Traskwood, Arkansas, 1960

• On December 17, 1960, a 96 freightcar train suffered partial derailment in which the last 23 cars were derailed. The derailed cars included: four fuel oil tank cars, two tank cars of gasoline, three tank cars of petroleum oil, four cars of lube oil drums, three cars of liquid fertilizer, one car of fuming nitric acid and two cars of fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate. In this particular accident, neither car of ammonium nitrate exploded. However, the nitric acid reacted with the fuel oil, essentially creating ANFO to feed the conflagration, resulting in the spread of the ammonium nitrate material around the incident site.