Two oil trains derail, tank cars burning in West Virginia, Ontario
A fire burns Monday, Feb. 16, 2015, after a train derailment near Charleston, W.Va. Nearby residents were told to evacuate as state emergency response and environmental officials headed to the scene. (AP Photo/The Register-Herald, Steve Keenan)
Two oil trains have derailed and caught fire, one in a populated area of Fayette County, W.V., and the other in a remote Ontario forest, during the past 48 hours.
The West Virginia accident has seen 14 tankers and a house catch on fire, with at least one tanker car going into the Kanawha River. A nearby water-treatment plant was shut down.
The train was carrying Bakken field crude oil from North Dakota, the same somewhat volatile oil that is now passing by rail along waterfronts of Puget Sound cities en route to oil refineries at Anacortes and Cherry Point on northern Puget Sound.
“A CSX train derailed in Mount Carbon, W.V.” the railroad tweeted. “We are working with first responders on the scene to ensure the safety of the community.”
Over the weekend, a Canadian National train carrying crude oil derailed near midnight Saturday in a remote wooded area of Ontario, sparking a fire that was still burning more than 24 hours after the accident.
The accident saw 29 cars of a 100-car CN train leave the tracks. Seven caught on fire. A CN spokesman confirmed that the fire was still burning on Monday.
The Ontario train was traveling about 40 mph when it derailed. It had been visually inspected on Saturday and had passed through a checkpoint that automatically detects mechanical problems just 20 miles short of derailment, the Globe and Mail reported. The tracks had also been inspected on Saturday.
The accident, about 50 miles south of Timmins, Ontario, forced shutdown of CN’s main east-west route. VIA passenger train service between Toronto and Winnipeg was suspended.
Canada saw a disastrous accident in July of 2013, with an oil train slipping its brakes, rolling into the small town of Lac Megantic, Quebec, and exploring. =Forty-seven people were killed in the disaster.
A major oil train explosion occurred early last year near New Carroltown, N.D., but in an area with no houses nearby. The derailment of another CSX train last spring dumped oil into the James River, and caused a fire that forced evacuation of downtown Lynchburg, Va.
The use of rail cars to transport crude oil has increased 4,000 percent in North American over the past five years. In Western Washington, the first rail shipment to a refinery took place in September of 2012. Since them, all four Anacortes and Cherry Point refineries have adapted or have plans to adapt to receive oil by rails.
In this image made available by the City of Lynchburg, several CSX tanker cars carrying crude oil in flames after derailing in downtown Lynchburg, Va., Wednesday, April 30, 2014. (AP Photo/City of Lynchburg, LuAnn Hunt)
A major, controversial oil terminal, proposed for the Columbia River in Vancouver, Wash., would receive oil by railroad.
Canada has implemented new safety rules in the wake of the Lac Megantic disaster, rules aimed chiefly at getting newer, safer tank cars to replace 1960′s-vintage cars. The U.S. Department of Transportation has drafted but not yet implemented rules in this country.
One major refiner, Tesoro, stopped using old DOT-111 tank cars last year. The Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad has announced that it is buying newer, safer tank cars.
But railroads have been reluctant to fully share information on cargoes and schedules with emergency responders, and have resisted its public release.
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