Derailment Report, Response Were Timely Investigation Clarifies Time Line Involving County Officials, Bnsf
Boundary County authorities were notified promptly that a freight train had derailed, spilling toxic gas, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Co. officials said Monday.
A railroad investigation concluded Monday determined the train derailed at 8:50 p.m. Saturday, only seven minutes before the Boundary County Sheriff’s Department was notified about the wreck. Initial reports that the train derailed at 8:15 p.m. were inaccurate.
Railroad and Boundary County authorities, who confirmed the BNSF findings, blamed the discrepancy on a communication breakdown during the confusion that followed the crash.
“The delay was not anywhere near as significant as we originally thought,” said Bob Graham, the county’s emergency incident commander.
Sheriff’s officials learned about the derailment at 8:57 p.m. from a private citizen who heard the crash in the Kootenai River canyon near the Montana border and smelled ammonia.
Boundary County authorities immediately called BNSF officials, who were simultaneously learning about the derailment through internal communications, said Gus Melonas, a railroad spokesman.
“The first call that came in was from them,” Melonas said of the Boundary County Sheriff’s Department.
Railroad officials then notified state and federal officials, and sent two hazardous materials teams to the crash site. Early reports that BNSF crews started working on the derailed train without checking in with local authorities also were determined to be untrue.
“Safety is our number one concern,” Melonas said. “We’re constantly trying to develop close relationships with the local responders. Everyone performed as planned.”
County disaster workers credited favorable weather conditions - rain saturated the gas while the wind dispersed it - with averting a potential disaster. The wreck forced the evacuation of up to 200 people from nearby homes, motels and campsites.
“We came extremely close to a major, major catastrophe,” Graham said. “That was 33,500 gallons of an extremely toxic substance in heavy concentrations. We lucked out big time with the weather we had.”
No serious injuries were reported, but the poisonous fumes wilted trees around the crash site and reportedly killed some wildlife. Water from the nearby Kootenai River has been tested for contamination, but none has been detected, officials said.
Railroad repair crews worked through the night Sunday and into Monday morning to reopen the stretch of track through Boundary County about 11:30 a.m. Monday. Rail traffic through Boundary County will run along a stretch of side track near the crash site until the main line can be repaired, Melonas said.
The derailment mangled approximately 200 feet of track and dumped 11 cars from the tracks. Six of the derailed cars contained anhydrous ammonia, a gas that can cause burning eyes and respiratory problems.
A section of damaged track pierced one of the tankers carrying the ammonia, releasing its contents into the air, Graham said. The other five cars carrying the gas sustained exterior damage, but their inner containment shells were not breached.
Empty tanker cars will be brought to the crash site today to begin transferring the gas from those five cars, Melonas said. All 11 damaged cars could be removed from the site later this week.
The remaining 58 cars that did not derail were taken to Bonners Ferry or Montana, depending on which side of the damaged track they stopped on, Graham said.
A ballast car carrying crushed rock, the 26th car in the Spokane-bound train, was the first to derail when it tangled in a switch on the track, Graham said.
Railroad investigators still were trying to determine Monday what caused the derailment, Melonas said.
More than 100 emergency workers from Boundary and surrounding counties responded to the crash, along with two BNSF hazardous materials teams and state environmental and fish and game officials.
Brian Coddington can be reached at (208) 765-7124 or by e-mail at brianc@spokesman.com.