(The Daily Herald posted the following article by Nadia Malik on its website on December 19.)
CHICAGO — A ruptured freight train fuel tank closed down the area around Northwest Highway and Route 53 in Arlington Heights for four hours Thursday night.
The train was heading northwest and out of the area when a coupling device in the diesel engine fell underneath the train and pierced the 4,000-gallon gasoline tank, Arlington Heights police said.
The train came to a stop underneath the Route 53 overpass, but the 98 cars it was pulling stretched through the area, almost blocking the Euclid Avenue intersection, police Sgt. William Newman said.
The fire department responded, plugging the leak and securing the scene.
Arlington Heights fire Lt. Doug Ruhnke said the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago removed the rest of the fuel.
“They just pumped the fuel out of the diesel engine into an empty tanker,” he said.
The fuel that had leaked out also had to be cleared, and many roads in the area were closed as a precaution until that was done.
Newman said that from about 4:20 p.m., when the call first came in, to 8:20 p.m., when the area was finally cleaned up, Northwest Highway from Wilke to Rohlwing Road was closed. Portions of exits from Route 53 were closed at different times.
The major closings, though, were along northbound Wilke Road from Euclid Avenue.
Police and fire personnel from Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Cook County and state police helped control traffic during that time, Newman said.
Soon after the incident, the rest of the cars were disconnected and taken away to clear up some of the blocked roads, Ruhnke said.
“Metra was delayed because we were out there working, and we were letting them go by at only 10 mph,” he said.
Some of the crossings were completely closed for about 20 to 30 minutes, causing more train delays.
Newman said the engineer and conductor on the train stopped on the middle tracks as soon as they could after they realized the problem. No one was injured.
After the area was cleaned up and rail cars taken away, the engine components with the leak were removed, Newman said.