North Dakota oil train fire forces evacuation

A derailed BNSF Railway oil train that caught fire just outside the town of Casselton, N.D., on Dec. 30 forced the evacuation of the small town 25 miles west of Fargo, N.D.

Casselton mayor Ed McConnell estimated that dozens of people could have been killed if the accident had happened where the tracks ran through Casselton instead of outside town. Citing “numerous derailments in this area,” McConnell said it was time to “have a conversation” with federal lawmakers about the dangers of transporting oil by train.

Numerous oil trains pass through Northwest Montana on BNSF tracks, running along the southern border of Glacier National Park and the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and through the cities of Columbia Falls and Whitefish.

The National Transportation Safety Board said a westbound mile-long grain train had derailed earlier at the site, with parts of the BNSF train landing on an adjacent track.

Eighteen cars of a 106-car eastbound BNSF train hauling crude oil from the Bakken fields in western North Dakota then derailed as a result, and several tanker cars caught fire.

Residents of Casselton, population 2,400, reported hearing explosions that shook businesses and residences and seeing fireballs for several hours after the accident. The fire was so intense as darkness fell that investigators were unable to tell how many tanker cars were burning.

Worries about hazardous smoke from the fire prompted the call for an evacuation on Dec. 30. Residents were allowed to return to their homes the next day.

Preliminary investigations found nothing wrong with the railroad track or signal equipment at the site. A broken axle from a rail car was located, but NTSB investigators did not know the significance of that find yet.

Passengers on Amtrak’s westbound Empire Builder were delayed by the accident. Passengers were bused between Minot and Fargo, skipping stops at Rugby, Devil’s Lake and Grand Forks.

North Dakota is now the No. 2 oil-producing state in the U.S. The state’s top oil regulator estimates that about 90 percent of North Dakota oil will be shipped by train in 2014, up from 60 percent in 2013.

The number of tanker cars hauling oil by rail in the U.S. has dramatically increased from 10,840 in 2009 to a projected 400,000 in 2014. But railway company officials point out that the accident rate has remained relatively steady, with 99.997 percent of hazardous shipments reaching destinations safely.

Adding to that volume is the volatility of the light crude coming from the Bakken fields, where fracking is used to extract oil from deep underground layers of shale.

On Jan. 2, three days after the derailment at Casselton, a safety alert was issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation warning the public, emergency responders and shippers about the flammable and explosive nature of oil from the Bakken.

The alert noted that light, sweet crude from the Bakken may be different from other heavy crude oils because it’s prone to ignition at lower temperatures because it contains more natural gas.

Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, a Bismarck, N.D.-based group representing hundreds of oil industry companies, said the Department of Transportation warning should not come as a surprise.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Bakken oil is a high-quality crude with a lower flash point — that’s what makes it a desired commodity for all those coastal refineries,” he said.

Public attention over oil shipments by trains instead of pipelines peaked on July 6, 2013, after a train carrying oil from the Bakken crashed and burst into flames in Lac Megantic, Quebec, killing 47 people and leveling parts of the downtown area. The train was owned by short-line operator Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway

A train carrying Bakken oil derailed and exploded in western Alabama on Nov. 8, 2013, releasing 749,000 gallons of oil from 26 tanker cars. The fire occurred in a rural area and burned for five days. The train’s owner, Genesee & Wyoming Inc., is also a short-line operator.

Following the Lac Megantic accident, federal officials issued an advisory to oil companies requesting that they properly classify their crude oil shipments on a scale that ranks hazardous materials as “great danger,” “medium danger” or “minor danger.”

There is also talk of upgrading the DOT-111 rail cars used to transport crude oil. Different types of DOT-111 rated tanker cars exist, and their safety is under investigation.