Train derails
Houck official worried about response abilities

Workers from GandyDancer LLC, an Albuquerque-based railroad contracter, work to clean up the damage Monday after a five-car train derailment early in the morning blocked both sets of tracks in Houck, Ariz. [Photo by Jeffery Jones/Independent]

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

HOUCK, Ariz. — Burlington Northern Santa Fe crews and contractors were working around the clock to clear a train derailment that blocked off both east and westbound tracks early Monday morning.

Local BNSF officials did not return messages requesting comment. But according to Lena Kent, a company spokeswoman out of San Bernardino, Calif., five double-stacked cars on an L.A.-bound train from Chicago went off the tracks at approximately 3:20 a.m. just west of Houck, Ariz.

BNSF reported no injuries, according to Kent, and did not yet know the cause of the accident.

"The incident is still under investigation," she said.

Depots up and down the line were brought to a halt. As of Monday afternoon, trains were still backed up both east and west of the derailment.

"It is our main (transcontinental line), so it will cause some delays for our customers," Kent said.

Crews were busy hauling tractors and moving equipment to the site. They also brought in portable spotlights for a long night of work. Kent said the company hoped to have the tracks cleared by 4 this morning.

Kent could not specify what the derailed cars contained, but said it was nothing dangerous.

"I think we were lucky there were no hazardous materials, no chemicals or nuclear materials," said Houck Chapter Coordinator Zander Shirley.

Having past experience with the Navajo Nation's emergency service agencies, Shirley said he knew that such cargo travels the tracks which skirt, and occasionally cross, the reservation's southern border daily.

"If a disaster were to hit," he said, "I don't think some of the chapters are really prepared to handle it."

According to Shirley, the tribe's Department of Emergency Services has requested each chapter to develop its own emergency contingency plan for just such an event. But progress among the chapters in the area, he conceded, including Houck, has been slow.

Right now, Shirley said, the chapter could probably do little more than turn its building into a safe house for its approximately 2,000 members. A contingency plan, he said, might provide for medically trained personnel, a reference to all the resources at the community's disposal and clear procedures for coordinating a response with other chapters.

"It would behoove each chapter to come together and collaborate," Shirley said.

For its part, BNSF has its own hazardous materials crews in case of emergencies, Kent said.

The Federal Railroad Administration reported only one other accident in Apache County since January of 2006 its online records end in October a two-car derailment at the Coronado Generating Station, east of St. Johns.

But Laguna, a few hours east of Houck, certainly had a scare in the spring of 2003. When a westbound train suspected of carrying hydrochloric acid left the tracks just after passing the town, authorities evacuated some 300 residents. No one was injured and, according to Kent at the time, no hazardous materials were "compromised."

In February of 2005, in Gallup, authorities closed off a portion of West Route 66 when a five-car derailment sent 600 gallons of ethanol, a flammable liquid, streaming from at least two tankers. Authorities cleared the yard of workers but stopped short of evacuating any area residents. No injuries were reported.

More recently, in the fall of 2006, Gallup witnessed two derailments in as many weeks near the Allison Road crossing, raising concerns within the local fire department of the track's safety.

Earlier this month, the Federal Railroad Administration approved BNSF's plans to start implementing its electronic train management system, an automated safety system intended to help prevent train collisions and accidents involving excess speed; however, beyond an administration-approved test in Kansas and Texas scheduled for later this year, Kent said BNSF had no specific plans for the system and the rest of the company's 32,000 miles of track.