Accident may have occurred when train carrying crude hit derailed grain car
by Andrea Germanos / CommonDreams
A giant fireball and huge plumes of black smoke shot into the sky on Monday afternoon when a BNSF train carrying crude oil derailed near Casselton, North Dakota.
“A grain train derailed and a train carrying crude ran into it,” Reuters reports Cecily Fong, public information officer with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services, as saying. “Possibly up to 12 rail cars involved,” Fong stated.
“The sky is totally black from smoke,” Casselton homeowner Eva Fercho told WDAY News, and said that when a second explosion hit she “could almost feel the house shake.”
The derailment reportedly occurred about one mile from the city’s ethanol plant.
Black smoke could be seen 15 miles from the scene of the accident.
Video of the explosion:
