SARASOTA, Fla. — Just feet from homes and businesses near downtown Sarasota sit train cars that are labeled “filled with petroleum.” The tanks, neighbors claim, were stored there after Hurricane Ian because the trains couldn’t deliver fuel down the rail lines to Fort Myers.
“I know every little speck of sand and every leaf that falls off the trees,” said Virginia Hoffman, who has owned a building off Lime Avenue in Sarasota since 1984.
So, she noticed immediately when train cars started to pile up along the tracks.
“Those are tank cars. They hold 30,000 gallons of propane,” Hoffman said.
She says some of the cars are unprotected. Anyone can walk right next to or drive right up to them.
“All it takes is one spark they can't control,” Hoffman said. “People along the tracks, who set up camp in the brush, they build fires up and down the railway tracks. And that scares the hell out of me because building a fire next to a propane tank.”
It was so much of a concern to her that she started complaining, sending emails to the city of Sarasota looking for answers.
“So I came across this email and was, you know, caught my eye about what's going on, on these tracks,” said Kelly Brown, who lives just down the street from the train cars.
She saw Hoffman’s email on the city‘s public access site. She then drove over to where the cars were parked to check it out herself.
“I was shocked that I could just drive right on the property. No one stopped me. There's not even a chain across the entrance. I drove right on the property and watched them moving gas from the tanker rail tanker into the truck to then transport wherever they were going, somewhere south in Fort Myers,” Brown said.
Kelly even took her concerns to a city council meeting. 10 Investigates reached out to the city, too. Leaders told us by email that “the City does not have jurisdiction or authority over any railroad. City of Sarasota staff has contacted Seminole Gulf Railway and a representative assured the City that a Federal Railroad Administration officer meets on a near-monthly basis for on-site hazmat inspections. The City has shared this information with the residents who raised the issue. For further information, please contact the Federal Railroad Administration which has legal authority over the railroad.”
While Virginia says she’s never received any answers, 10 Investigates contacted the Federal Railroad Administration. It tells us they are looking into the concerns.
“I want to be assured that this whole operation is 100% safe and it needs to have an endpoint,” Hoffman added.
The Federal Railroad Administration told us it was sending an inspector out for a site visit days after receiving 10 Investigates' email. It later told us the visit would be sometime in September or October. It said it's monitoring what's happening at the site more frequently because of the propane transloading operation. But it adds this is a private track that's outside its jurisdiction, and it is regularly interacting with Seminole Gulf Railway to provide oversight.
The city of Sarasota has emailed and hand-delivered a letter dated August 13, 2024, to the Federal Railroad Administration requesting confirmation and details regarding the FRA's oversight "with a particular focus on the handling and management of tanker cars within our community."
City Engineer Nikesh Patel said, "In light of recent community concerns regarding the transportation and storage of hazardous materials, including Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), we kindly request your confirmation that the FRA continuously monitors these operations..."