Weyauwega derailment

The Weyauwega derailment was a railroad accident that occurred in Weyauwega, Wisconsin, USA on March 4 1996.

Derailment and fire

At 5:50 am, 37 cars of a Wisconsin Central train derailed when it travelled over a broken turnout in the track. The derailed cars included 7 tank cars of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), 7 tank cars of propane and two tank cars of sodium hydroxide. The derailment ruptured three of the tank cars and spilled both LPG and propane, which immediately ignited. When the local fire crew arrived on the scene five minutes after the derailment, the fire was displaying fireballs up to 300 feet (90 m) high that were visible for nearly 13 miles (21 km). Fire spread to a nearby feed mill and storage building that were both difficult to access by the fire crew because the derailed train was blocking the grade crossing. The entire town of Weyauwega was evacuated at 7:30 am due to the risk of explosion.

The local Assistant Fire Chief (the commanding Fire Chief was on vacation the day that the accident occurred) quickly determined that the accident was beyond the scope of Weyauwega's fire department. Fire crews from 10 surrounding departments were called in to help with the recovery.

The scope of the resulting fire kept residents evacuated for just over two weeks, and many of the fires that erupted as a result of the derailment burned for most of the 18-day evacuation. Residents who were worried about pets that they left behind started illegally re-entering the evacuation zone within two days of the derailment to rescue them. Just over half of the population evacuated without their pets. The acting Fire Chief declared that the situation was too dangerous to the public and emergency personnel to mount a pet rescue. Fearing a worse disaster, his decision was overruled by the Governor's office; the Emergency Operations Center organized an official pet rescue to take place on March 8. The National Guard was activated to help with the recovery efforts; they escorted pet owners back to their residences to rescue their pets, then stayed to help fire crews with the accident recovery.

The weather may have helped ease the situation for firefighters a little as there was still snow on the ground keeping the air temperature down, and helping to prevent an explosion. On March 20, officials in charge of the evacuation and disaster recovery declared the town safe for residents to return to their homes.

References

• Burke, Robert (July 1996), Weyauwega Wisconsin propane fire. Retrieved January 13 2005.
• Cabaniss, John C. Railroad Negligence – Derailment – Settlement. Retrieved January 13 2005.
• Center for Applied Ethology and Human Animal Interaction (February 1997), Survey of Weyauwega residents affected by the train derailment of March 4, 1996. Retrieved January 13 2005.
• Heath, Sebastian E., The public and animal health consequences of pet ownership disasters (PDF). Retrieved January 13 2005.