Train derailment adds to safety fears

PRINSBURG, Minnesota — Hundreds of people had to evacuate their Minnesota town after a train hauling ethanol and corn syrup derailed and caught fire early on Thursday, sounding the alarm once again on safety concerns.

Authorities were hopeful that the quick response and cold weather would help limit the impact of the latest crash.

Those pushing to improve rail safety said the derailment only added urgency to the debate over reforms that Congress and regulators are considering, even as officials seemed to apply some of the lessons learned after last month's fiery derailment near East Palestine, Ohio.

The Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, or BNSF, train had numerous rail cars derail on the western edge of Raymond but within the city limits.

Several of the derailed tankers caught fire and they were determined to be carrying "a form of ethanol and others with a corn syrup liquid", the statement said.

No travel is advised to Raymond, a small town in southwest Kandiyohi, Minnesota, of about 800 residents.

An evacuation area of about 800 meters was established around the crash site and law enforcement and emergency crew members assisted with that evacuation, the sheriff's office said.

Residents were instructed to leave their homes and an emergency collection site for those with nowhere to go was established.

Minnesota officials said the BNSF train derailed around 1 am in Raymond, which prompted the evacuation of essentially all of the town's 250 homes.

The United States has been increasingly focused on railroad safety since the Feb 3 Norfolk Southern derailment that prompted several thousand evacuations in and around East Palestine near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Residents in that town of about 5,000 remain concerned about lingering health impacts after officials decided to release and burn toxic chemicals to prevent a tank car explosion. State and federal officials maintain that no harmful levels of toxic chemicals have been found in the air or water, but residents remain uneasy.

BNSF officials said 22 cars derailed, including about 10 carrying ethanol, and the track remained blocked, but no injuries were reported. The cause has not been determined, but Environmental Protection Agency officials said on Twitter that four ethanol cars ruptured and the flammable fuel additive caught fire.

Lawmakers pushing for railroad safety improvements said statistics show too many communities are dealing with these issues.

"Three derailments per day on average. That's way too many," Republican US Representative Bill Johnson of Ohio said. "When is the next one going to occur, and what is the next village or township or community in America that is going to have to be evacuated?"

Agencies - Xinhua