Investigators say that an investigation into what caused yesterday’s train derailment of a CSX Corp. freight train in Oneida, New York could take up to 18 months. An Associated Press story details that the freight train traveling from Buffalo to Selkirk was carrying liquid propane and other chemicals through Oneida when 28 of its 80 cars derailed at seven in the morning on Monday. The derailment sent a huge fireball into the sky, causing propane tankers to burn throughout the morning and forcing people to evacuate their homes. No personal injuries have been reported at this time.

Oneida Fire Chief Don Hudson said that two cars containing liquid propane exploded and burned out while two other tankers of liquid petroleum and a fifth rail car with the solvent toluene burned. Officials declared a state of emergency for a half-mile area around the accident, which was expected to affect eight homes. Officials also evacuated various areas a mile around the accident, including most of downtown Oneida, which has a population of 10,000.

The story also detailed that up to 4,000 people live in the affected area and that evacuation was mandatory only for those homes closest to the blast. Around 100 people reported to a local shelter while local jail officials had to move 78 prisoners to a jail in nearby Chenango County. Four firefighters were exposed to liquid chloride and had to be decontaminated before going back to fight the blaze.

Federal Railroad Administration investigators were quickly at the scene to examine potential causes for the derailment. CSX spokesman Maurice O’Connell was described as saying that drug tests will be performed on the engineer and that the train’s black boxes would be analyzed. Another company spokesman, Robert Sullivan, said that CSX has specialists dealing with the hazardous chemicals and was committed to meet the needs of displaced residents.

The train derailment caused two elementary schools to close for the day, stalled train service and shut down a section of the state’s Thruway for about four hours. A cause of this train derailment has yet to be determined.