16 February 2015, News Wires – Investigators are being deployed to the site of a train derailment and fire in northern Ontario where seven rail cars were reported to be ablaze.
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board said that it was sending a team to the site of the accident involving a crude oil train operated by Canadian National (CN) train around 80 kilometres south of Timmins, Ontario.
The TSB said its investigators will gather information at the site and assess the incident.
The train heading from Alberta to eastern Canada derailed shortly before midnight local time on Saturday night, a CN spokesman told Reuters.
Canada’s largest rail operator said 29 of 100 cars were involved and seven were on fire.
“The derailment occurred in a remote wooded area and there are no reports of injuries. There is a fire at the scene,” a spokesman told the news wire.
The train operator has dispatched firefighting and environmental crews and equipment to the scene.
Itsaid the train had been visually inspected four times, most recently on Saturday, and had passed over a wayside safety detector about 20 miles before the derailment with no issues identified.
A boom in oil shipments by rail and a spate of derailments across North America have put heightened focus on rail safety.
In 2013, 47 people were killed in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic after a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded.
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