(The Globe and Mail posted the following article by Jordan Heath-Rawlings on its website on May 22.)
TORONTO — A CN freight train derailment near Orillia, Ont., has blocked off a chunk of Highway 12 and forced Ontario Provincial Police to briefly evacuate a small town called Gamebridge, located near the crash site, on Highway 12 just north of Beaverton, Ont.
Twenty of the 40 cars in the train were carrying sulphuric acid.
Although acid is leaking from three of the cars, OPP Sergeant David Lee said that the chemical is spilling into a farmer’s field and is nowhere near a water source.
The evacuation order was cancelled after it was determined that there was little danger to residents of the town and that the spill was nearly under control.
“Sulphuric acid is only dangerous if it comes in contact with your skin,” Sgt. Lee told globeandmail.com. “But the town was evacuated because acid was leaking into ditches by the roadside and causing a lot of smoke to billow up.”
Crews are currently working to contain the spill by building dirt barriers, and Highway 12 is still closed between Brechin and Beaverton.
“A new engine has just come up on the back of the train [to pull the cars away],” Sgt. Lee said from the site Wednesday afternoon. “I just heard them charge the line, so it looks like they’re ready to go.”
He added that police were working on reopening the highway within the next hour and reuniting children who were pulled from school on the south side of the tracks with their parents, who live on the north side.