By paNOW Staff

Evacuation lifted, investigation continues after train derailment

Oct 7, 2014 | 12:50 PM

The evacuation order is lifted for people affected by the train derailment west of Wadena.

“The fire is out, all of the derailed cars are clear, the evacuation order for the affected residents has just been lifted and we are in the process of rebuilding the track,” Jim Feeny, public affairs spokesperson for CN Rail, said on John Gormley Live Wednesday. 

There were 26 rail cars from a CN train that left the tracks Tuesday morning just outside the small community of Clair, which is situated on Highway 5 between Watson and Wadena. The portion of Highway 5 about 17 kilometres west of Wadena to eight kilometres east of Quill Lake is still closed. There is a detour in place.

Six of the derailed cars were carrying dangerous goods, two of which leaked petroleum distillate that caught on fire.

Feeny said the four other cars carrying dangerous goods like hydrochloric aci and caustic soda did not leak.

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Trevor Airriess was one of about 30 people who were forced out of their homes after the train jumped the tracks and exploded. He and his family run a cattle operation in the area and had to leave his livestock behind. 

“They are on their own right now. We are just on our way back right here now to go back there to check ‘em out to make sure everything is OK there,” he said.

Airriess is worried the smoke might have had an impact on his cattle.

“I’m more concerned about the cows with that smoke and everything. I don’t know how bad those chemicals were or if the cows were going to abort or if I would have lost any,” he said.

The province has done air quality and chemical contaminant testing at the site, citing no health concerns.

“As far as we know, there have been no measureable quantities of health concerns at the site,” Ralph Bock, manager of hazmat with the Ministry of Environment, said.

The ministry will continue to monitor levels. CN Rail has offered to pay for anyone wanting a water quality test.

“There was no measured values that would be a concern to health to human beings or animals that were measured at the incident,” Bock told reporters during a conference call Wednesday.

At this point, it is too early to determine what caused the derailment. The investigation has been turned over to the Transportation Safety Board.

Anything that may have had a bearing on the derailment will be examined.

“All the necessary inspections on the line had been completed in the proper time frames and no issues were identified,” Feeny said.

“The normal train speed at this location and around it is 40 miles per hour. This train was travelling exactly at 40 miles per hour.”

CN is busier now than it ever has been, according to Feeny. He said the company has spent $100 million in upgrades to infrastructure on the Prairie North Line, which includes the crash site, in the past year.

Airriess said a train derailment was bound to happen.

“It seems like there are so many trains that go by, you knew that it was going to happen eventually,” he said.

While slow orders are sometimes put on a particular section of track where the company believes there needs to be maintenance to bring it up to par, Feeny said there was no slow order put on this section of the track.

CN Rail is currently rebuilding the track and hopes to have it back in service by the end of Wednesday. 
 
-with files from News Talk Radio’s Chris Carr and Karin Yeske

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow