(The following story by Ainslee S. Wittig appeared on the Arizona Range News website on September 10.)
WILLCOX, Ariz. — A “very minor derailment” of a Union Pacific train occurred Friday near Country Club Road, said Zoe Richmond, spokeswoman for Union Pacific.
Around 3 p.m., “We were called out (by Cochise County Sheriff’s Office) and told there were two cars on the ground with a fuel leak and fire. But, there were no cars on the ground, and it took us a while to find the fuel leak because there was no fire,” said Patti Ackerson-Rodriguez, Willcox Fire Department assistant fire chief.
Richmond said that “one wheel of a locomotive jumped the track,” and apparently caused a rupture in the fuel tank.
Ackerson-Rodriguez said it looked like a broken axel caused the wheel to jump the track. The wheel then broke the concrete barrier at Country Club crossing, and concrete may have kicked up and ruptured the tank.
An estimated 2,000 gallons of diesel leaked from the tank, Ackerson-Rodriguez said.
Willcox Fire Department stayed at the scene for about five hours, spraying F500 neutralizer foam on the fuel, which breaks fuel down so it will not ignite, Ackerson-Rodriguez said.
“We tried to plug the hole (in the tank), but couldn’t plug it completely. We were able to slow it down. We were asked by Union Pacific to stand by in case of an incident, such as a spark,” she said.
She added that while a crane was lifting the locomotive to fix the broken axel, “the crane tipped over, and another crane had to be brought in to right the first crane.”
“At that point, we were released. It was between 9:30 and 10 p.m.”, she said.
Trains that were not in route already were re-routed during the incident. Some delays occurred for those trains already in route, causing backed up trains while the spill was being cleaned up, Richmond said.
“Fortunately no one was hurt and the spill was mitigated quickly and the clean up was done quickly,” she said.