Railroad safety

It could have been so much worse.

Last week’s trestle fire along Canadian National’s Duluth Winnipeg and Pacific rail line south of International Falls had the potential to be an incredible disaster. It was only a matter of luck that the rail cars that burned on the short span bridge on the north edge of the tiny community of Ericsburg were hauling potash, a non-flammable fertilizer, rather than volatile crude oil from the Bakken oil fields.

Recent accidents in places like Casselton, N. D., and the horrific fire that killed nearly 50 people in Lac Magentic, Quebec in 2013, have revealed the tremendous risks that accompany the shipment of hazardous materials, particularly oil, along our nation’s rail lines. In those cases, it was derailments that caused explosions and fires as oil tankers breached. The potential for disaster from rail cars caught on a burning trestle would seem even more straightforward and potentially catastrophic.

As the Timberjay reported earlier this year, the busy DWP line that runs from the northwest corner to the southeast corner of St. Louis County, has seen a dramatic rise in the number of rail cars that haul crude oil in recent years. Just five years ago, only a handful of the rail cars traveling this corridor contained oil. By 2013, that number had jumped to 19,000 cars, or more than 50 per day, and that number almost certainly increased in 2014. Crude oil is now the most common hazardous material hauled on the DWP line.

There’s no doubt that CN does a good job of running a railroad, but no rail line operates with perfect safety. While authorities appear to have ruled out arson in this latest bridge fire, that suggests that some kind of mechanical failure on an earlier train may have been the cause. At the same time, we’ve seen more than one wooden bridge in the region destroyed by arson in recent years, and it’s intangibles like that that make the potential for disaster all the more unpredictable, regardless of a railroad’s overall safety record.

And the timing of this incident, which took place in the middle of the night, would have only added to the disaster had oil tankers been involved. Imagine train cars full of volatile oil exploding and burning just yards away from a community of sleeping residents. Multiple casualties would have been a near certainty.

CN officials and local authorities need to better understand how this bridge caught fire in the middle of the night and ensure that such incidents can be avoided in the future. Fortunately, the increase in rail accidents involving oil has prompted a greater focus on safety, and emergency responders in places like International Falls, Orr, and Cook, are increasingly aware of the need to be prepared. This latest incident only highlights that need.

All that can really be said is that we dodged a bullet. It was the luck of the draw that made the difference between an inconvenience and a catastrophe. Will we be ready the next time, if we’re not so lucky?