A Union Pacific train forced evacuations of residences and schools in Dupo, Illinois, after it derailed and ignited into a fireball that could be observed miles away.

(KTVI via AP)

“I was just standing out here working and seen a giant fireball out of the corner of my eye and I looked over and saw smoke billowing and then it started spreading down the tracks about five minutes after that,” Patrick Wilson, a witness to the accident, told KMOV4 Tuesday.