Ignited rail cars carrying hazardous materials were mostly extinguished Saturday, a day after they derailed in a remote area of North Dakota.
Authorities said Friday that no one was injured. The threat to people living nearby remained low, according to county emergency management, which reported no air contamination in the area or downwind.
Twenty-nine cars of one CPKC Train derailed around 3:45 a.m. in a marshy area surrounded by farmland that is about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Fargo, said county emergency management director Andrew Kirking.
Kirking said in a statement Saturday that the fire still flared occasionally as responders pulled cars off the tracks. But “firefighting operations throughout the night and morning were incredibly successful,” he said.
Emergency officials now say the contents of the derailed train cars included anhydrous ammonia, methanol and plastic pellets.
Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager for the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, identified ammonia as a potential hazard, but the wind was carrying the smoke away from the nearby town of Bordulac, which has about 20 residents.
“The wind has been in our favor on this,” Suess said Friday.
Exposure to high concentrations of ammonia in the air can cause burns to the eyes, nose, throat and respiratory tract, and can result in blindness, lung damage or death, health officials say. Exposure to smaller amounts may result in coughing and nose and throat irritation.
CPKC said in a statement Friday that it has “initiated its emergency response plan and launched a comprehensive and coordinated response.”
The railway was the result of a merger last year of Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday it is investigating.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
