MAY 28, 2015
ERICSBURG, MINNESOTA
A timber rail bridge burned and collapsed early Wednesday in
Koochiching County, tipping two rail cars onto the banks of the Rat Root River
and temporarily blocking a Canadian National rail artery that connects the
Pacific Coast with Chicago.
The cause of the fire is still unclear, though the state
fire marshal is helping with the investigation, said Perryn Hedlund, sheriff of
Koochiching County.
“We’re looking at every angle; we’re not jumping to
conclusions,” Hedlund said.
There were no reports of injuries, or word on when service
would resume on the busy rail line.
The crew of a southbound train carrying potash — a
non-flammable farm fertilizer — reported the fire just after 12:30 a.m., CN
spokesman Brent Kossey said. Koochiching
County Sheriff Perryn Hedlund said the bridge that burned crossed the Rat Root
River, just north of Ericsburg and about 8 miles southeast of International
Falls.
“As soon as (the crew) came around the corner, (they) saw
the flames,” Hedlund said. A crew member “applied his emergency brakes as soon
as he saw the flames.”
When the train came to a stop, several cars were on the
burning bridge. By the time the crew could prepare the train to start moving
again, those cars were stranded in the fire.
The crew uncoupled the cars on the bridge. Hedlund said the
original locomotive — on the south side of the bridge — and another locomotive
called in from Ranier, to the north, cleared the unaffected cars that were on
either side of the bridge.
A couple hours later the bridge gave way; two rail cars on
the bridge shifted but did not fall into the river, Hedlund said. Kossey said
the cars remained intact and had not spilled their cargo.
Several nearby homes initially were evacuated until
authorities could determine what was aboard the burning cars, Hedlund said.
Hedlund said the cause of the fire has not yet been
determined, and local authorities and the State Fire Marshal’s Office were
assisting CN and police with the investigation.
Hedlund praised the response of local law enforcement and
fire personnel to the early morning incident, calling their efforts
“picture-perfect.”
The collapsed bridge is on a major rail line that sees about
24 trains a day, as reported in the News Tribune earlier this month. The line
crosses the border at Ranier — the busiest rail crossing between the U.S. and
Canada — and continues south to Duluth.
CN did not immediately respond to questions about how long
it expects the rail line to be out of service while a replacement bridge is
built.
The railroads generally help each other in situations like
this, Gross said, and CN could reroute eastbound trains onto BNSF and Canadian
Pacific lines that come down from Manitoba into northwest Minnesota.
The incident highlights growing anxiety in Ranier, a village
of 150 that has seen freight rail traffic from Canada surge in recent years.
The bridge across the Rainy River from Fort Frances,
Ontario, to Ranier was built in 1907 and had long been a quiet crossing. But
now it carries more than 20 trains a day that are up to two miles long, said
Dennis Wagner, mayor of Ranier.
“Something’s going to happen,” Wagner said. “It’s just
freaking math.”
Wagner said about 19 percent of all freight rail traffic
across the border passes through Ranier and then Ericsburg. The burned bridge
makes him worry that a similar incident could happen in downtown Ranier.
“What happens when this other bridge that’s 120 years old
collapses? Oh! Imagine that. And then it fills the whole Rainy River full of
oil and gas,” he said. “Rail safety and bridge safety has been an issue of
major concern around here.”