Fire crews have extinguished a fire that raged in Oregon after a Union Pacific Corp train carrying crude oil derailed on Friday and burst into flames, the Federal Rail Administration said.
The accident, which forced the evacuation of a school and the closure of a highway, has renewed calls for stronger regulation to guard communities against crude-by-rail accidents.
It was the first major oil-by-rail incident in the United States in a year.
A quarter-mile evacuation remained in place around the scene near the tiny town of Mosier, outside of Portland, but it was expected to be lifted later on Saturday, the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) said on Saturday in an email.
The accident happened alongside Oregon’s scenic Columbia River gorge and the Environmental Protection Agency, Coast Guard and FRA officials were still on site and continued to monitor the river.
There were no reports of oil entering the river, the FRA said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-derailment-oregon-idUSKCN0YQ0KN
“It was the first major oil-by-rail incident in the United States in a year.”
Gee, I wonder why they picked Oregon after all that time. 😡
It is still a very safe way to move crude oil. So a a few rail cars derail and burn. It is better than a pipe line under ground constantly pumping oil through a break. I worked for the rail line on the north side of that river.
“It was the first major oil-by-rail incident in the United States in a year.”
The suggestion here is that we should ignore our crumbling infrastructure, and accept that this a derailment every year is okay.
How many train derailments do we have in the first decade of the 21 first century compared to derailments in the 1980s, or 1970s ?