Current:Home > Contact-usFiery railcars with hazardous material mostly contained after derailment in North Dakota-InfoLens
Fiery railcars with hazardous material mostly contained after derailment in North Dakota
View Date:2024-12-23 15:48:15
Enflamed railcars carrying hazardous material were mostly extinguished Saturday, a day after they derailed in a remote area of North Dakota.
Officials said Friday no one had been hurt. The threat to those living nearby remained low, according to county emergency management, which reported no air contamination in the area or downwind.
Twenty-nine cars of a CPKC train derailed around 3:45 a.m. in a marshy area surrounded by farmland that is about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Fargo, county emergency management director Andrew Kirking said.
Kirking said in a statement Saturday that the fire would still occasionally flare up as responders moved railcars from the tracks. But “firefighting operations through the night and morning have been incredibly successful,” he said.
Emergency officials now say the contents of the derailed cars included anhydrous ammonia, methanol and plastic pellets.
Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager for the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, identified ammonia as a potential risk, but wind was carrying the smoke away from the nearby town of Bordulac, which has about 20 residents.
“Wind has been in our favor on this,” Suess said Friday.
Exposure to high concentrations of ammonia in the air can cause burning of the eyes, nose, throat and respiratory tract, and can result in blindness, lung damage or death, health officials say. Exposure to lower amounts can result in coughing and irritation of the nose and throat.
CPKC said in a statement Friday that it has “initiated its emergency response plan and launched a comprehensive, coordinated response.”
The railroad was the result of a merger last year of Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday that it is investigating.
veryGood! (25925)
Related
- Bears fire offensive coordinator Shane Waldron amid stretch of 23 drives without a TD
- Israelis search for loved ones with posts and pleas on social media
- How's your 401k doing after 2022? For retirement-age Americans, not so well
- 12-year-old Texas boy convicted of using AR-style rifle to shoot, kill Sonic worker
- 2 credit unions in Mississippi and Louisiana are planning to merge
- Major airlines halt flights to Israel after Hamas attack
- 2 elderly people found dead in NW Indiana home from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning
- Full transcript of Face the Nation, Oct. 8, 2023
- 'Serial swatter': 18-year-old pleads guilty to making nearly 400 bomb threats, mass shooting calls
- 'The Crown' teases the end of an era with trailer, posters for final season
Ranking
- Rafael dissolves into a low pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico after hitting Cuba as a hurricane
- It’s now a 2-person Mississippi governor’s race, but independent’s name still appears on ballots
- Flag football is coming to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028
- Oregon announces record $5.6B tax kicker thanks to historic revenue surplus
- Olympic Skier Lindsey Vonn Coming Out of Retirement at 40
- Ohio social worker accused of having sexual relations with 13-year-old client
- Cowboys star Micah Parsons not convinced 49ers 'are at a higher level than us'
- Pumpkin weighing 2,749 pounds wins California contest, sets world record for biggest gourd
Recommendation
-
Volunteer firefighter accused of setting brush fire on Long Island
-
Here's what is open and closed on Columbus Day/Indigenous People's Day
-
U.S. working to verify reports of Americans dead or taken hostage in Israel attack, Blinken says
-
Who’s running for president? See a rundown of the 2024 candidates
-
Trump’s economic agenda for his second term is clouding the outlook for mortgage rates
-
New York Jets OL Alijah Vera-Tucker out for the season with a torn Achilles tendon
-
Meta Quest 3 review: powerful augmented reality lacks the games to back it up
-
Horoscopes Today, October 8, 2023