(The following story by Kenyon Wallace and Jason Miller appeared on the Toronto Star website on June 5, 2009.)
TORONTO — Oshawa resident Charlie Stacey was getting ready to take his dogs for a walk around 2:20 p.m. Friday when, “all of a sudden, the whole ground just went boom, boom, boom.”
Stacey, whose Montrave Ave. home backs onto the CP rail tracks, didn’t know it yet, but his house was on the fringe of a derailment that saw some 27 train cars leave the tracks and pile up near Park Rd., north of Hwy. 401, perilously close to area homes.
“I saw all the cars start piling up against the Park Road bridge and then one of the rails curved up 15 feet in the air,” Stacey said. “That’s what really freaked me out … it was surreal.”
Stacey was one of about 1,000 local residents and students evacuated from their homes and two area schools after the derailment. Police said residents were evacuated from a 10-square block area surrounding the wreckage.
No hazardous goods were aboard the derailed train, officials said.
The derailed cars were only “a fraction of the overall length of the train,” said Sgt. Nancy Van Rooy, a spokesperson for Durham Regional Police.
One of the derailed tankers was carrying hydrogen peroxide. “It’s leaning about 15 degrees and does not appear to be leaking,” said Gray.
Gray said officials from CP checked the train’s manifesto and discovered that the derailed tanker was the only derailed car carrying a chemical.
Van Rooy said several calls came in from residents at about 2:20 p.m. on Friday. “This is a significant derailment. One tanker is on its side. There was a fire in one of the engines and some leaks of diesel from some tankers.”
Residents on Greenwood Ave., Marland Ave., Sinclair Ave., and Hibbert Ave. were allowed back into their homes late Friday evening. Residents on Pacific Ave., Grenfell St. and Marquette Ave. weren’t so lucky. They will be out of their homes until at least Saturday evening as the clean up continues.
Police said a command centre for evacuees was set up at the South Oshawa community centre. No injuries or deaths have been reported, according to Van Rooy.
Stacey said the grass behind his home was on fire right beneath one of the locomotive diesel tanks.
When asked if he had any idea as to what caused the derailment, Stacey said CP had recently put in a new switch between the main line and a siding that runs behind his house. He said he often sees train crews working with heavy rail equipment to realign the tracks. At least 20 times in the past three years he’s seen crews with machinery pull up the rails and re-pound them into the rail bed.
The city’s HAZMAT team was dispatched, according to the mayor.
Access to city streets between Park Road in the east to Stevenson Road in the west and Hillside Avenue in the south to Gibb Road in the north was shut down by police.
The mayor said the area evacuated was primarily residential but included some big box retailers such as Loblaws and Canadian Tire.
A Durham region news reporter on the scene said there was a tangle of train cars under the Park Road bridge and a 30- to 40-foot section of track and rail bed was torn up, with wheels and engines strewn across the ground.
“CP’s first priority is the safety of the employees, and to work to mitigate any environmental damage. Operationally, CP has been North America’s safest railroad in ten of the last twelve years and remains so today,” said Mike LoVecchio, a spokesperson for the Canadian Pacific.
GO Transit service was unaffected by the derailment; as it occurred east of the final stop in Oshawa for GO trains.
The city of Oshawa performs at least two mock emergencies for training purposes annually, according to the mayor.
Ironically, the last emergency training took place last winter and featured a mock train derailment on the CN lines south of Highway 401.