A freight train transporting flammable ethanol derailed yesterday afternoon in Indiana County.

Members of the state DEP's emergency response team were dispatched to the derailment site at the request of Indiana County officials.

The 41-car eastbound Norfolk Southern train was heading from Conway to Newark, N.J., when six cars went off the tracks at 1:45 p.m. in West Wheatfield near the Conemaugh River.

No one was hurt, but the car carrying ethanol caught fire, said Rudy Husband, a railroad spokesman. The fire was contained and continued to burn slowly, and it is not known whether any ethanol leaked into the nearby water, said Helen Humphreys, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman. She said no leaks could be detected from the two surrounding tankers containing liquid propane and methyl ethyl ketone, a highly volatile solvent used to make household chemicals.

"If enough [ethanol] got to the water, it could have a significant environmental impact," she said.

It was not known what caused the derailment, which is under investigation by Norfolk Southern.