A train that went crashing off the tracks about 25 km east of Fort Frances Wednesday night may have spilled up to 2,500 gallons of diesel into Rainy Lake.
“Last night, it happened around 9 p.m., we had a spill of diesel fuel and some of went into the lake,” said Bill Limerick, environmental team leader for the Northwestern Health Unit, who was up until 2 a.m. because of the spill, which happened about 1 km from Windy Point.
At the scene, firefighters, contractors, Ministry of the Environment, health unit employees, Ministry of Natural Resources and several area residents were fighting to contain the spill and pump it out before it could spread across the lake.
A boom line had been laid a few metres from shore and was yellow with diesel.
This morning, a second boom line was being laid further out in the water as the first line became saturated and some diesel slipped through.
Yellow streaks could be seen on the water throughout the area.
Further west, CN crews, some of who had been working for 31 hours straight after just finishing a shift on Wednesday, were working to sort through a mess of twisted cars from the accident.
Cars had fallen into the water and were ripped to pieces, sending loads of gravel into the water and along the tracks.
The tracks themselves were bent and twisted with wheels, springs, shocks and chunks of metal dotting the area.
One nearby cabin owner who was helping to lay out the boom line with his boat said he had called CN after noticing the train line was suspended above the washed away embankment after Tuesday night’s torrential downpour.
“I guess I didn’t call them soon enough,” noted Brian Gillon. “The tracks were washed out and all the ties were just hanging in the air.”
Unconfirmed reports say that the train’s brakeman suffered non life-threatening leg injuries in the accident.
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