Crews continue work at site of train derailment near Carrington

Jul. 5—BORDULAC, N.D. — A Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway company train carrying hazardous materials derailed near this small town early Friday, July 5, said Andrew Kirking, Foster and Stutsman counties emergency manager.

The derailment occurred around 3:30 a.m. about half a mile from Bordulac, which is 10 miles southeast of Carrington, he said. There is a fire at the scene.

Kirking said more than 20 cars derailed, estimating there were 80 or more cars on the train at the time of the derailment.

The crew, consisting of a conductor and engineer, was not injured, he said. He did not know the cause of the derailment.

"The operators of the train were able to disengage and get to safety and Canadian Pacific — their response time is phenomenal," Kirking said. "They have flooded this little town. They're helping out and they were able to cut loose all of the cars so now we're just dealing with the derailment."

The Carrington Fire Department was the first to respond to the scene, Kirking said.

CPKC issued a statement to WDAY, saying it has initiated its emergency response plan and launched a comprehensive, coordinated response to the derailment.

Patrick Waldron, assistant vice president, communications and media relations, said crews, including senior officers from its operations and hazardous materials teams, have responded to assess the situation.

"We are coordinating with local emergency response officials on scene,' he said in the statement. "The train is carrying hazardous materials. There is a fire at the scene. There are no reports of injuries. The safety of the public and emergency responders is CPKC's first priority."

Kirking said they were getting more response procedures in place to extinguish the fire and get the train cars moved.

"We've got some mutual aid with Kensal and a few other local departments here," he said.

He said no residents have been injured. Bordulac Township has an estimated population of 38, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

Kirking said he did not know the type of hazardous materials on the train.

"I have not seen a manifest," he said. "I've just been informed by Canadian Pacific that there were hazardous materials on board and they are taking action to mitigate and reduce any damage."

Kirking said he has been in communication with state agencies.

"I've been in touch with the North Dakota Watch Center, which does just that — they help me supervise all these incidents," he said. "I've been in touch with (state) Department of Environmental Quality. They are aware of the situation and they're letting this response die down a little bit, get the fire put out figuratively, literally, and then they will come in and do their assessment."

The incident command is located half a mile away from the site, Kirking said.

"At this time, the wind is in our favor. It's pushing any material away, so there's no life threat at this time," he said.

Foster County Sheriff's Office personnel are at the site and the North Dakota Highway Patrol is assisting with traffic control, he said. The Stutsman County Drone Team is providing aerial imagery, he said.

Kirking said he was impressed by CPKC's response to this event.

"They were out here, I mean, they were here hours after the incident from all over," he said. "They're working hand in glove with our responders here with my department, so just my appreciation to their swift response."

As of 4:30 p.m. Friday, the fire was burning at the site, Kirking said.

"Right now we are hoping to have the fire out sometime tomorrow," he said.

He said due to soft ground, they have to put down some temporary mats he compared to a heavy duty pallet in order to get responders and heavy equipment to the train.

"About an hour, may be an hour and a half ago, we were able to hook up some of our first water pumps," he said. "It's the first water we've been able to put on the burn so far and it's doing a whole world of good."

Kirking said a big challenge was finding a pump strong enough to get water to the fire.

"There's a pretty sizeable gap between the road and the rail and we just didn't have the pumps that could do that without running out of water in no time," he said. "So we got some speciality trash pumps here where we're able to pump right from the ditch, use that water and attack the fire that way."

Several fire departments remain at the scene, he said.

"We're grateful for our mutual aid because it's allowing these Carrington responders to go and get some rest and still have personnel on scene," Kirking said.

"A lot of it has just been getting this implement into place, meaning we are looking forward after the fire is out to getting these rail cars moved and this line open again," he added. "So we're working on operations for tomorrow and for next week and next month all at the same time."