MOUNT CARBON, W.Va. — A train carrying more than 100 tankers of crude oil derailed in southern West Virginia on Monday, sending at least one into the Kanawha River, igniting at least 14 tankers, and sparking a house fire, officials said.
One person was treated for an inhalation problem, but no other injuries were reported. Nearby residents were told to leave their homes as a state emergency response and environmental officials headed to the scene about 30 miles southeast of Charleston.
The state was under a winter storm warning and getting heavy snowfall at times, with as much as 5 inches in some places. It was not clear if the weather had anything to do with the derailment, which occurred about 1:20 p.m. along a flat stretch of rail.
Federal railway and hazardous materials officials were called to the scene. The company said it was investigating what caused the train to come off the tracks.
Public Safety spokesman Lawrence Messina said responders at the scene reported one tanker and possibly another went into the river. Messina said local emergency responders were having trouble getting to the house that caught fire.
James Bennett, 911 coordinator for Fayette County, said he knew of no injuries related to the house fire or subsequent tanker fires. He said a couple hundred families were evacuated as a precaution.
The rail company said it was still sorting out many specifics of the accident.
‘‘CSX teams also are working with first responders to address the fire, to determine how many rail cars derailed, and to deploy environmental protective and monitoring measures on land, air, and in the nearby Kanawha River,’’ CSX spokesman Gary Sease said in a news release.
The fire continued burning along a hillside Monday evening, and small fires could be seen on the river.
David McClung said he felt the heat from one of the explosions at his home about a half mile up the hill.
His brother in law was outside at the time of the derailment and heard a loud crack below along the riverfront, then went inside to summon McClung, his wife, and their son.
One of the explosions that followed sent a fireball at least 300 feet into the air, McClung said.
“We felt the heat, I can tell you that,” McClung said. “It was a little scary. It was like an atomic bomb went off.”
West Virginia American Water spokeswoman Laura Jordan said the company shut down a water treatment plant, about 3 miles from the derailment, at about 2:30 p.m. The plant serves about 2,000 customers.
State health officials said another water plant downstream in the town of Cedar Grove also closed its intake. They asked customers from both water systems to conserve water.
The office of Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, who has declared a state of emergency, said the tanker cars were loaded with Bakken crude from North Dakota and headed to Yorktown, Va.
The Bakken oil-producing region encompasses parts of North Dakota, Montana, and Canada.
The US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in a report last year that crude produced in the Bakken region is more flammable than other types of crude and more dangerous to transport by rail. About three-quarters of the oil produced in North Dakota is shipped by rail.
West Virginia emergency officials responding to Monday’s derailment said all but two of the 109 cars being hauled were tanker cars.
The US Transportation Department has been considering tougher safety regulations for rail shipments of crude oil.
Responding to a series of fiery train crashes, including one this spring in Lynchburg, Va., the government proposed rules in July that would phase out tens of thousands of older tank cars that carry increasing quantities of crude oil and other highly flammable liquids. It is not clear how old the tankers were on the derailed train in West Virginia.
In December, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, urged regulators in the Office of Management and Budget to swiftly complete their review of the proposal to phase out the older tank cars. OMB reviews federal regulations before they are enacted.
Schumer, who has long advocated for stricter regulations on such cars, made the renewed push after the agency said the process could take several months to finalize.
Earlier last year, the Department of Transportation released a series of proposed regulations, including reductions in train speed, tougher tank car design standards, and enhanced communications with local first responders.
The type of tank cars that would be replaced were involved in an explosion that killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec in 2013. The train’s 72 tank cars were carrying 2 million gallons of Bakken crude oil.
The train derailed in the center of the town and released 1.6 million gallons of flammable crude, much of which burned. Forty-two people were confirmed dead, and five others were never recovered and presumed dead. More than 30 buildings in Lac-Megantic were destroyed, about half of the downtown.
The regulations that would eventually require the phasing out of these older tank cars, known as DOT-111 cars, are accompanied by proposals to alert local emergency management personnel about when the cars will be moving through their areas of responsibility as well as how to respond to a spill or explosion.