(The Associated Press circulated the following story on November 6.)
DILLON, Mont. — Cleanup continued here Saturday at the site of a train derailment that happened two days earlier, sending 10 cars off the tracks and leading to the evacuation of a house and service station because officials suspected a chemical spill.
There were no injuries and no chemical spill in the derailment, which happened about 6 p.m. Thursday.
“Anytime it’s a tank car, the red flags go up,” said Larry Laknar, Beaverhead County disaster and emergency services coordinator. The derailment included six tankers. They last hauled magnesium chloride, a chemical commonly sprayed on roads to control dust.
Laknar said empty tankers can be explosive and that in responding to the derailment it was appropriate to initially treat the cars as though they were full. Several of the derailed tankers were within a few feet of a house.
Laknar said state officials who were notified determined there was no human-health or environmental hazard.
“Somehow a wheel or something fell off the track and was riding on the (railroad) ties,” said Dave Kula, a Union Pacific track supervisor in Idaho Falls, Idaho. “When it got (near Dillon) it was tired of dragging, and the cars came off the tracks.”