A chemical Chernobyl?

An alarm for heavy chemical pollution has been issued in the L'vov region, Ukraine, where yesterday evening a railway disaster led to a fire involving 15 containers of liquid yellow phosphor. (pictures at: http://www.vesti.ru/photo.html?id=130484 text in Russian). Podrobnosti.com.ua reports that the fire started when one of the containers started to leak and the phosphor caught fire.

Extinguishing the fire proved extremely difficult, since water cannot be used, as in contact with phosphorus it would generate poisonous gas. It took six hours before the flames were over. Gas was generated anyway, at the moment the poisoned surface extends on about 90 sq. km. The casualties count is already heavy: 20 people were injured, 13 of them are in critical conditions, they have been carried to the L'vov hospital. (video at: http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=130484&cid=1# text in Russian)

The poisoned area includes 14 villages. From the five villages that are closer to the disaster area some 800 people have already been evacuated, half of them had to manage on their own as there was not enough public transport for all. At the moment there is no available data about the wind direction and next expected movements of the phosphorus cloud. Special firemen units remain on place to control the possibility of a new fire, while the Admistration of the L'vov Region is trying to forecast the possible
short and mid term evolution of the situation.

The Ukrainian Railways have officially excluded the possibility of a terrorist act as a cause for the disaster. Podrobnosti.com.ua reports the deadly dose of yellow phosphor at 0,1 g. According to the same source, when poisoning living beings phosphor attacks their bones, their spinal cord, and it starts liver necrosis.