Posted on 12/30/2013 1:43:04 PM PST by george76
BREAKING NEWS: A train is derailed west of Casselton, North Dakota. It happened at 35th Street and 154th Avenue Southeast just before 2:20 p.m. Monday.
Several area emergency teams are on scene and are setting up an incident command center. A viewer who is about a half mile from the derailment tells Valley News Live she can see large flames.
Several train cars are on fire and huge plumes of black smoke can be seen for miles. Emergency crews are urging people to stay inside and a code red alert has been sent out to residents in a two mile radius of the accident.
(Excerpt) Read more at valleynewslive.com ...
There are up to 154 Avenues in Casselton???
And 34 streets?
If it’s oil tank cars, all I can say is that that piplines don’t derail.
Yes, I hope it isn’t anything like the Lac Megantic disaster from earlier this year. Of course, that wouldn’t have happened either if the trains operator and/or crew hadn’t been grossly negligent in failing to properly set manual brakes on a sufficient number of cars (it appears - the investigation is not complete and its results not public, yet).
The fire appears to be crude oil. Earth First and other environmental wackos has been known to sabotage industries that they consider unclean or environmentally bad.
I look forward to the results of the investigation.
Can you guess who owns the trains that are transporting this oil? Why none other than the oracle of omaha, that big supporter of obama, democrats and funder of pipeline opposition.
Old Warren only supports what is in his own best interest, the rest of the nation be damned.
Per inforum.com,
No apparent injuries, 106 cars east-bound. Haz-mat and fire-fighting crews are responding to the derailment.
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/422351/
That’s what enhanced 911 did for us. It’s probably MILES out of the the town.
Cass County Emergency Manager Dave Rogness ... a dozen rail cars carrying ethanol...
http://nypost.com/2013/12/30/fiery-train-derailment-in-north-dakota/
Could have been caused by rail shrinkage. Temperatures have been 40 below in the area and did not get above zero today.
An Ethanol fire requires special fire retardants to put it out
seems that many fire stations don't have the correct equipment...hope these guys are OK.
(and another unintended consequence of the Ethanol fiasco)
Well, at least it won’t have an opportunity to destroy people’s cars and lawn care engines...
There are up to 154 Avenues in Casselton??? ______________________________________________________
Agricultural rural farming areas have now been mapped with street and avenue numbers. The old Rural Routes are no more. I believe this is typical in all rural areas. I think the name of the town simply reflects the zip code of the post office that delivers the mail.
If this is signaled territory a broken rail would drop the signals to stop. I'm not qualified on the physical characteristics there, though. I had read elsewhere that a grain train had derailed and sideswiped the crude oil train... but here someone was saying something about ethanol.... need to dig further...
just went to link... right away I see:
UPDATE: Entire City of Casselton Being Evacuated
this is as of 10 minutes ago.
A wind shift from a storm front ?
...says crude oil train hit derailed train loaded with soybeans.
Casselton has an ethanol plant, so there may have been rail cars full of ethanol involved, either on a siding, or as part of one of the trains.
So do I.
This is the third train derailment involving crude oil within the last 6 months that occured near city centers.
July 6, 2013: Train Carrying Oil Derails and Explodes.
October 19, 2013: Fire rages after another train derails in Canada.
December 30, 2013: Train Derailment West of Casselton [ North Dakota ]
Three explosive derailments within 6 months, when there have been none in the years prior? That's a pattern.
-PJ
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