Raymond.- A train carrying ethanol and corn syrup derailed and caught fire in Minnesota early Thursday morning and area residents were ordered to evacuate, according to authorities.
The BNSF train derailed in the town of Raymond, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) west of Minneapolis, around 1 a.m., according to a statement from Kandiyohi County Sheriff Eric Tollefson.
The country has increasingly focused on rail safety after last month’s Norfolk Southern derailment prompted evacuations in East Palestine, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border.
Residents of the city of about 5,000 people remain concerned about lingering health effects after authorities decided to release and burn toxic chemicals to prevent a tanker car explosion. State and federal officials maintain that no harmful levels of toxic chemicals have been found in the air or water there, but residents are concerned.
Major freight railroads have said they plan to add about 1,000 more track detectors across the country to help detect equipment problems, but federal regulators and members of Congress have proposed additional reforms to prevent future derailments.
BNSF said in a statement that 22 carriages derailed and four caught fire, but no injuries were reported. It was not immediately clear how many derailed cars were carrying ethanol.
“The main track is blocked and there is no availability on the estimated time to reopen the line,” according to the statement from BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent. “The cause of the incident is under investigation.”
Homes in a half-mile (800-meter) perimeter around the site were evacuated, Tollefson said, and residents were taken to a shelter in nearby Prinsburg.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN that about 14 railcars were carrying hazardous materials. BNSF said the only hazardous material on board was ethanol.
Governor Tim Walz planned to visit the site along with state emergency management officials.
The Federal Railroad Administration, the Pipeline Safety and Hazardous Materials Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board will review the derailment claim.
It seems unlikely that this BNSF train would have been covered by the additional safety regulations for high risk flammable material trains because those regulations only apply when a train has a block of 20 flammable liquid cars or more than 35 flammable liquid cars. total. Those safety rules were developed after a series of crude oil and ethanol derailments a decade ago.
