(The Arkansas City Traveler posted the following story by Foss Farrar on its website on July 23.)
ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. — It’s been a long shift for Arkansas City Fire Marshal Randy Leach and his crew. First, on Monday, there was the spectacular fire at the Conoco-Phillips refinery. Then around 3:30 a.m. today, three-and-a-half hours before their shift was to end, they were called out to a train derailment and chemical spill.
Leach and several others who had fought the Ponca City fire were still at the scene of the derailment at 10 a.m. this morning. A string of five tanker cars derailed just south of Poplar Avenue on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks in the northern area of the city.
One of the tanker cars carrying liquid fertilizer apparently was punctured in the derailment and lost its load of chemicals, Leach said.
Santa Fe officials at the scene would not comment on the derailment. A public relations spokesman for the railroad late this morning said he couldn’t comment until investigating the incident.
“We were called at 3:30 a.m. after a train derailment and (chemical) spill,” Leach said. “We do an assessment to see if there is any danger to the public.”
Leach said the liquid fertilizer that spilled from one of the tanker cars was “pretty well contained” and the Fire Department determined there was no immediate danger to the public. No evacuation was necessary, he said.
“It (the rail car) dug its own hole,” Leach said. “The product is contained.”
Nearby residents might smell some ammonia that is part of the chemical mix, but not in enough quantity to cause harm, he said.
“The wind was out of the right direction, blowing north,” he said, adding that some of the spill evaporated.
Haz-Mat Response Inc., of Wichita, also was at the derailment scene this morning. Crews were preparing to clean up the remainder of the spill.
Another crew of eight people from Hulcher Services Inc., of Tulsa, Okla., also were there. Hulcher is a contractor for the railroad that helps at derailments, one of the crew said.
The cause of the derailment, which occurred about 3 a.m., is under investigation, Joseph Faust, a spokesman for the BNSF said about 11 a.m. today.
“Three cars derailed upright; they did not turn over,” Faust said. “There were no injuries.”
One of the cars was punctured and leaked an undetermined amount of nitro-fertilizer on the ground, he said, adding that the liquid spilled into a nearby ditch.