Butane

A railroad tank car filled with butane derailed and caught fire early Monday, and about 100 homes were evacuated. No injuries were reported, and the fire was left to burn itself out. A total of 10 cars derailed in a rural area about 30 miles north of Seattle. Flames rose as high as 60 feet for more than 12 hours from the 33,600-gallon butane tanker.

Eighteen people gathered in a mountain hostel in eastern Spain for a birthday party died in their sleep from an apparent gas leak, officials said. The victims -- ages 20 to 40 -- were part of a group of about 50 who had converged on the hostel in La Todolella, a village 180 miles east of Madrid, for the Saturday night party. To keep themselves warm, they turned on a butane gas heater, emergency workers said. The mayor of La Todolella said the probable cause was a leaking butane bottle.

A butane gas explosion destroyed a crowded cafe today, injuring at least 60 people, six of them seriously, officials said. The explosion tore through the downtown Meson Andaluz cafe as it was beginning to fill with patrons, many of them municipal employees who had attended a special Mass at a church across the street.

The government will ban cigarette lighters on airplanes beginning in April, but passengers can still tote as many as four matchbooks in carry-on bags, security officials said. The Transportation Security Administration said passengers cannot carry butane, battery-powered or other lighters on themselves or in carry-on bags after April 14.

Two Mexican highway patrolmen died from gas poisoning while searching for marijuana hidden in a tank truck carrying butane gas, the state news agency Notimex reported Friday. It said the two police agents intercepted the stolen truck Thursday on the Guayamas-Ciudad Obregon highway in the northern state of Sonora.

A four-square-block area of downtown Compton was evacuated today when seven cars of a 55-car Southern Pacific freight train--including a tanker containing 30,000 gallons of highly flammable liquefied butane--derailed near City Hall and police headquarters. Compton Fire Chief Monroe Smith ordered the precautionary evacuation even though the butane tank car apparently did not rupture. There was no fire and there were no reports of injuries. The accident occurred at 6:40 a.m.

Authorities responding to reports of a house fire found about 140 marijuana plants and an elaborate processing system. Firefighters were called Tuesday night by neighbors who reported hearing an explosion. The flames were quickly put out. Inside, police found the plants -- some of them more than 4 feet tall -- and a system that used pressurized butane gas to distill the narcotic ingredients.