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Investigators prepare to enter 'hot zone' 
  
GRANITEVILLE -- Officials are donning their protective gear 
and making plans to proceed with the investigation into the 300-meter "hot zone" 
around the crash site of Thursday morning's train wreck that released deadly 
chlorine gas.   
Officials believe that one of the three tankers carrying 
chlorine ruptured and that the other two cars are damaged but have not leaked.
 
"The extent of the damage has not yet been determined," said 
Robin Chapman, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern. "We'll do what we need to do to 
meet the community's needs."   
On Thursday night, the railroad pulled 25 undamaged railcars 
away from the Graniteville crash site, where a two-locomotive train hauling 42 
cars slammed into a parked train that morning.   
Eight are known dead and more than 260 sought treatment for 
exposure to the chlorine released because of the accident.   
Twenty-five of the cars were loaded, including the three that 
contained chlorine and others that contained sodium hydroxide and cresol.   
The Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health has 
representatives at First Presbyterian Church, 224 Barnwell Ave. in Aiken, 
available to answer questions concerning chlorine and the other chemicals 
spilled in the crash.   
The names of the eight dead have been released by Aiken 
County Coroner Tim Carlton.   
They include Willie C. Shealey, 43, from Graniteville, and 
John Laird, 24, employees at the Woodhead plant; Allen Frazier, 58, from Ridge 
Spring, and Steven Bagby, 38, from Augusta, at the Gregg plant; and Fred Rusty 
Rushton III, 41, from Graniteville, at the Stevens Steam plant.   
A truck driver found dead was identified as Joseph L. Stone, 
from Quebec, Canada.   
Found dead in his home on Main Street was Tony DeLoach, 56.
 
Christopher Seely, a train engineer from West Columbia, also 
died, Mr. Carlton said. 
  
Fuente: 
http://www.aikenonline.com/stories/010705/new_trainupdate.shtml 
  
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