WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Residents, mill workers tell their stories of surviving Graniteville chlorine leak

Residents, mill workers tell their stories of surviving Graniteville chlorine leak

(Graniteville-AP) Jan. 7, 2005 - A train wreck that apparently caused a chlorine leak early Thursday morning in Graniteville is blamed for nine deaths, and left many others with stories of close calls.

The gas escape sickened many, sending more than 250 people to hospitals. Some were lucky to escape with their lives.

A Norfolk Southern freight train with 42 cars struck a train with one locomotive and two cars at a textile mill in Graniteville about 2:40 Thursday morning. Sixteen cars derailed.

Volunteer Fire Chief Phil Napier says he drove to the fire station as soon as he got the train wreck call. The station is only about 300 to 400 feet from the Avondale Mills crash site.

Napier said Friday he spoke to the two members of the train crew. One man told him that their train hit a parked train head-on and he thought some of the chemicals among the freight were leaking. A railroad spokesman says three cars were carrying chlorine. The Department of Health and Environmental Control says one of those tanker cars ruptured and is leaking chlorine gas.

The man told Napier he was having trouble breathing, then collapsed. That's when the chief says the smell hit him. He says he had to drive off and leave the man on the ground.

With his bloodshot eyes starting to fill with tears, he recalled seeing the bodies of mill workers lying outside. But, he says there was little he could do without protective gear and an air supply.

Townspeople and nightshift textile workers in Graniteville say they heard the sound of scraping metal and an earthshaking boom before a greenish-yellow chemical fog, the hallmark of chlorine gas, rolled in.

Volunteer firefighter Charles Reyes Littleeagle says he and his wife heard the metal scraping sounds and headed to the fire department near the crash, but the smell there gagged him and brought him to his knees. The couple was at the victims' assistance center on Friday.

Michael Meeds says his family lives across from the train tracks. After he heard a loud noise, Meeds says his son woke him up, "He was coughing fiercely. I put him in my bed, under the covers, 'cause I immediately started smelling it when I opened my door." Meeds, his son, and Meeds' pregnant fiance' then went to a decontamination area.

Douglas Brown, 44, lives two blocks from the track. He says he heard a boom that shook his house and heard metal dragging. Brown says he got into his car and drove to the scene. He says he saw a fog over the ground. He says there was a strong odor that made his tongue numb and his throat sore. Brown went to USC Aiken for decontamination.

Evacuee Larry Robinson says the crash sounded like a bomb. He got up, opened the front door and was literally knocked back by the fumes. He had to put a sofa cushion in front of his face to keep breathing. Within hours, he and many of his neighbors were in a parking lot at USC Aiken taking cold showers and counting themselves lucky to be alive.

Mary Judge, 48, was also at USC Aiken and worried about her dogs. She says they were barking furiously after the crash and then stopped.

The night crew at Avondale Mills Woodhead facility was forced to find their way through the night, through a toxic cloud of chlorine gas to safety.

Two men in their group didn't live to tell their story. They are among the eight confirmed dead.

Rodney Johnson, 27, described how it began, "It just started coming toward me. So I ran. Soon as I ran, when I rounded the corner, the whole plant was green."

He described the cloud, "It looked like a green fog coming toward you. It smelled like Clorox times 100. It felt like someone threw a match in your eyes and you were breathing fire."

Johnson says his supervisor did the right thing, "To evacuate us out of the plant. But once we were in the back of the plant, we were stuck. We were trapped back there."

He just wanted to make contact with his family, "Tried on a cell phone. Probably about four times, just kept getting, ring, ring, ring, just kept ring. I feel real lucky. I laid on the ground and prayed for about 30 minutes and had flashbacks of my family and friends."

Johnson soon came to the realization that he had to make a move, "I really didn't think I'd make it out of there. I really didn't. Something just told me to get up and run. That's all I could think of, my family. That's why I made it to the truck. Probably the only reason I did make it."

Somehow he made it, "I pulled around to the back of the plant and everyone jumped in so we could go to the hospital. They just piled in. One on top of the other. We pulled off and sped to the hospital. My eyes were blood shot red, swollen half closed. I couldn't breathe. It was rough."

His co-workers say Johnson kept them alive, "Each and every one keeps telling me if it weren't for me, they wouldn't be here today. All them had families too. They were thinking about their families like I was thinking about mine."

Two men didn't make it into Rodney's SUV. His supervisor, Willie Shealey, and John Laird, a close co-worker, went deeper into the woods to find fresh air. In the confusion and anguish, the crew didn't know the two men weren't on board.

Rodney says Shealey is the true hero for evacuating them. He believes they all would have died if they stayed put.

William Moon was at the Avondale administration office to pick up his paycheck when the chlorine cloud rolled in, "You could hardly stand up. Your eyes were watering. You couldn't see. You wanted to get out. You felt like you were dying."

He and other workers ran, "People tried to get to their cars, couldn't make it and other people had to pick them up and take them to the decon."

Mill spokesman Stephen Felker says it was the second tragedy for Avondale in two months. In November, five Avondale workers died when a train crashed into their car on their way home from work, "The associates are strong. We will be able to pick up. We will never forget the people that we have lost."

By Hannah Nelson & Jennifer Miskewicz

Updated 7:18pm by Chantelle Janelle