Crews began to remove the derailed train cars from north side tracks on Thursday.
A 12-person team from the National Transportation Safety Board was working to reconstruct railroad tracks to figure out what caused a train derailment and explosion Wednesday morning.
The derailment occurred on Fields Avenue, near 5th and 11th avenues, in north Columbus at about 2:05 a.m. Wednesday.
The area was shut down because of the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train from Chicago, heading to Linwood, N.C.
Seventeen of 98 cars that were carrying chemicals like ethanol and Styrene, a chemical used to make plastic, derailed. Cars carrying grain and corn syrup also fueled the fire, which burned until 2:45 a.m. Thursday.
NTSB officials said sensors on the railroad tracks showed no abnormalities as the train passed by.
They said the sensors would have picked up any heat related issues with the train and possibly any issues with the trains wheels.
Fire officials said that all of the cars were removed from the tracks by 11:30 a.m. Thursday and that crews were working to replace the damaged tracks.
A hazardous materials crew remained on the scene on Thursday.
"At this point the remaining ethanol and there's probably less than 500 gallons in the two cars and that is under a foam blanket," Columbus Fire Department Cpt. Bill Bropst said. "The worst scenario that we're looking at is a flash over but that wouldn't affect anybody except the employees working here and that's why we're still here."
Anyone who lives in the evacuation zone impacted by the derailment file claims with Norfolk Southern representatives at the Ohio Expo Center, located at 717 E. 17th Ave., until 8 p.m.
Fire officials said that they believed trains would be able to use the affected portion of the tracks by late Thursday. NTSB officials said that their goal was for full service to be restored in the next 3-4 days.
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