TRAIN LEAK CAUSES EVACUATION

POPLAR BLUFF -- Authorities Sunday night evacuated 200 to 300 people when a Union Pacific rail car began leaking an explosive chemical on Poplar Bluff's south side.

A spokesman for the Poplar Bluff Fire Department said the chemical, styrene monomer inhibited, does not pose a serious health risk, but is an "explosive hazard."

The chemical's fumes also could cause eye and throat irritation and dizziness, he said.

The leak was discovered at 6:42 p.m. on a tank car owned by Amoco Chemical in Chicago. Authorities evacuated a portion of the south side of Poplar Bluff and an area south of town until Union Pacific officials were able to move the car about a mile away from the city.

A Union Pacific emergency team was scheduled to be at the site by 11:45 Sunday night to repair the leaking car, the spokesman said.

"It was leaking around the dome of the car," he said. "Apparently the gasket is bad and it was hot enough to build pressure and start leaking."

The spokesman said that as temperatures cooled in the evening the leak began to subside.

There were no reports of injuries from the leak.