North Dakota oil train derailment evacuates town
No injuries reported after as many as 10 tank cars of a BNSF train come off tracks
A BNSF train carrying crude oil derailed and caught fire in Wells County, N.D., on Wednesday, just days after Canada and the United States announced sweeping reforms to improve safety of volatile shipments.
About 40 residents from the nearby town of Heimdal were evacuated after as many as 10 tank cars came off the rails, fire officials and the state's emergency management agency said.
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There were no injuries, officials said.
A photo posted on Facebook by a local radio station showed flames and heavy black smoke billowing from several tank cars that had derailed in a field.
But the scope of the blaze appeared limited. A woman working at JW's Restaurant Bar & Grill in nearby Harvey said by telephone she couldn't see any sign of the fire and was aware of the derailment only because she had read about it on social media. Light rain was falling nearby.
Heimdal is located along one of the main rail lines heading east out of the state's giant Bakken oil patch. About two-thirds of all North Dakota oil production is shipped by rail, three-quarters of that to refineries on the U.S. East Coast.
"We are aware of crude derailment and resulting fire near Heimdal, N.D. We have investigators on their way. Will update when we know more," Sarah Feinberg, acting administrator at the Federal Railroad Administration, said in a message on Twitter.
In a statement, BNSF confirmed the derailment and fire occurred and that there were no injuries.
New rules for oil trains
Just last Friday, Transport Canada and the U.S. Department of Transportation announced new rules for oil trains, including phasing out older tank cars, adding electronic braking systems and imposing speed limits. The measures are meant to reduce the frequency and severity of oil train crashes.
BNSF said the tank cars involved were unjacketed CPC-1232 models, which the new rules will render obsolete within five years.
Heimdal is one of the many small towns that dot the central North Dakota landscape and have co-existed with rail lines for decades. It has only seven streets and directly abuts the BNSF line, which has a spur to offload grain and other commodities.
Fire could be left to burn out
It was not immediately clear how state officials planned to respond to the fire or if the crude involved had high levels of combustible natural gas liquids. Highway patrol officials were at the scene alongside local fire departments.
"In the past we've just let these burn out," said Cecily Fong of North Dakota's Department of Emergency Services.
New state rules that took effect last month mandate that most NGLs be removed from oil before shipment, though Fong said the quality of the crude involved in this derailment is not known at this time.
The derailment occurred early Wednesday morning between Hamburg and Heimdal. The locomotive engine and roughly 99 tank cars not affected were unhitched and moved away, Fong said.
'They will ignite others'
On the non-jacketed CPC-1232s, involved in Wednesday's derailment, William Furman, chief executive of railcar manufacturer Greenbrier Cos, said in a recent interview that they are as dangerous as older cars if they derail and ignite, causing a ripple effect of fire and explosions.
"If they roll, release and ignite from friction or drag, they will ignite others that aren't jacketed or insulated," Furman said. "One car burning will crease torch effect that will burn through the other cars, that car heats, and it blows up like a Coke bottle in a microwave oven."
Greenbrier has been marketing a more fortified railcar with thicker steel, head shields and protected valves and fittings for more than a year, and the design matches the new standard adopted for crude railcars by U.S. regulators last week.
5 trains have derailed
The volume of crude oil moved by rail has rocketed in recent years as production increases from areas like North Dakota outpaced new pipeline development.
A spate of explosive accidents have accompanied that growth, the worst of which occurred in July 2013 when a train derailed in the Quebec town of Lac Mégantic, killing 47 people.
Already this year, five trains have derailed and caught fire in Canada and the U.S., all in rural areas. No deaths have occurred, but the incidents have stoked concerns about the safety of moving crude oil by rail.