Fire extinguished at ND crude train crash

OREANDA-NEWS. A fire involving six crude tank cars that derailed near Heimdal, North Dakota, yesterday has been extinguished, railroad BNSF said today.

BNSF has removed remaining crude from the derailed cars and is rerouting traffic on the eastbound line to maintain flows, officials said. Once National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators complete their on-site work, the railroad said track repairs will begin.

Yesterday morning, part of the unit train hauling 107 cars of Bakken crude jumped the tracks in central North Dakota on a track used to move production to east coast refineries. It was the 10th fiery crude-by-rail accident since July 2013 and the fifth this year.

The derailment involved nonjacketed CPC-1232 tank cars, the railroad said. That is the design standard that the industry adopted voluntarily in October 2011 as an improvement on the decades-old DOT-111 design. The last six fiery crude-by-rail accidents have involved CPC-1232 cars.

The US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on 1 May announced new tank car design rules that will be phased in over the next decade. Nonjacketed CPC-1232 tank cars will be authorized to move light crude until April 2020 under the new regulations.