A BNSF Railway oil train derailed and exploded early Wednesday morning in North Dakota. No one was injured in the wreck that happened about 50 miles east of Minot.
Amtrak officials tell the Flathead Beacon that the derailment did not occur on the route of the Empire Builder passenger train, which runs daily between Chicago and Portland-Seattle. However, freight trains being rerouted over the Empire Builder route in North Dakota could delay the passenger train in the coming days.
According to BNSF, the loaded oil train derailed at Heimdal at about 7:30 a.m. Local media reported that five to 10 cars of oil had gone off the tracks and caught fire. The cars that derailed were all CPC-1232 type cars, the same type that the U.S. Department of Transportation announced last week would need to be out of crude oil service within the next five years.
The derailment and fire in Heimdal is just the latest in a series of fiery oil train accidents that started in July 2013, when a train in Quebec derailed and exploded in the small town of Lac-Mègantic, killing 47 people and leveling 30 buildings.