Workers on Wednesday walk by the site where Morris Bounds’ house, truck and garage burned up when CSX oil tanker cars derailed and caught fire in Adena Village on Monday.
BOOMER, W.Va. — It’s rare a man can say he’s glad his wife is in the hospital, but it’s also not every day a train destroys his home.
Morris Bounds said his wife was supposed to come home over the weekend, but she stayed hospitalized Monday after her open-heart surgery involving four major bypasses. He’s also thankful that 15 loved ones, including grandsons, had left his Adena Village home in Fayette County the day before.
Bounds had been cleaning in anticipation of his wife’s return when, for some reason the shaken man can’t recall, he decided to go into the kitchen. He’s also glad for that, because he had a straight shot out the door when he heard a loud noise, “knew something was wrong” and looked out the window to see CSX tanker cars barreling toward him.
“I had to run out in my sock feet, no belongings whatsoever,” the 68-year-old, who’s now staying at his brother Homer’s house in Ansted, said in a phone interview.
If he were in any other room, Bounds believes, he would’ve died.
“I’ve got a bad back and bad knees and, sometimes, I can’t even walk,” Bounds said, “but the good Lord gave me strength.”
Many details about the train derailment, which occurred at edge of the Kanawha River on Monday afternoon, remain unclear, including the cause of the incident and how long it might take to clean up the area. CSX spokeswoman Melanie Cost said 27 tank cars, each carrying a possible 30,000 gallons of Bakken Shale crude oil, went off the tracks. The other cars in the more than 109-car train have been moved away.
Cost said the company hoped on Wednesday to begin placing eight of the derailed cars back on the tracks and inspecting them to see if they’re OK. The other 19 have either been punctured, caught fire or were near the fire and possibly affected…