Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Fire, Let it burn

2 oil cars still burning at Illinois derailment site

Repost from The Northwest Herald, Crystal Lake, IL
[Editor: Interesting fire-fighting details: “…authorities say they did not have to allow a leaking car to explode as was initially expected….the tank car’s pressure relief valve closed, stopping the leak and allowing firefighters to extinguish that fire. Two other cars remain on fire in what authorities describe as a ‘controlled burn.'”  – RS]

2 oil cars still burning at Illinois derailment site

By The Associated Press, Saturday, March 7, 2015 11:01 a.m. CST
Smoke and flames erupt from the scene of a train derailment Thursday, March 5, 2015, near Galena, Ill. A BNSF Railway freight train loaded with crude oil derailed around 1:20 p.m. in a rural area where the Galena River meets the Mississippi, said Jo Daviess County Sheriff's Sgt. Mike Moser. (AP Photo/Telegraph Herald, Mike Burley)
Smoke and flames erupt from the scene of a train derailment Thursday, March 5, 2015, near Galena, Ill. A BNSF Railway freight train loaded with crude oil derailed around 1:20 p.m. in a rural area where the Galena River meets the Mississippi, said Jo Daviess County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Moser. (AP Photo/Telegraph Herald, Mike Burley)

GALENA, Ill. — Two rail cars remain on fire at the site where an oil train derailed this week in western Illinois. But authorities say they did not have to allow a leaking car to explode as was initially expected.

Authorities had warned of the likelihood of more explosions at the site of Thursday’s derailment south of Galena.

But in an update Saturday, the Federal Railroad Administration said the tank car’s pressure relief valve closed, stopping the leak and allowing firefighters to extinguish that fire.

Two other cars remain on fire in what authorities describe as a “controlled burn.”

Twenty-one of the train’s 105 cars derailed in an area where the Galena River meets the Mississippi. No one was injured.

As of Friday night, there were no signs that waterways had been contaminated.