UPDATE -CP Rail Responds to Derailment; Supports Slower Speeds

The clean up and suppression of the fire continues near the community of Guernsey follow the derailment this morning (Thurs).
Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency president Marlo Pritchard says the first priority is to extinguish the blaze from the crude oil.
The Ministry of Environment is on scene and will be working with other authorities on site including CP Rail to do the clean-up afterwards.
85 Guernsey residents were evacuated to Lanigan because of the smoke. The community declared a state of emergency. Pritchard says the train was pulling around 104 cars, 31 of which had derailed and as of early Thursday afternoon, 10 were on fire. Guernsey is about 115 km east of Saskatoon. (CKRM)

Canadian Pacific says there were no injuries and their emergency response teams are at the scene working closely with local fist responders to contain the fire. Immediately following the derailment, CP implemented a slow order on its crude trains as a precautionary measure. CP fully supports the action taken by Transport Canada which has issued a Ministerial Order beginning at midnight on February 7th requiring trains with 20 or more cars containing dangerous goods to slow down.

The community of Guernsey was evacuated to Lanigan, to the Community Hall to take refuge from the smoke. Town Administrator Jennifer Thompson says they got the call just after eight o’clock and they were able to get some members of council to be at the hall and they called a local business to prepare breakfast for anyone who shows up at the hall. Thompson says it’s her understanding that it’s a voluntary evacuation at this point.

Humboldt RCMP are advising the public that the derailment just east of Guernsey has closed Hwy 16 in both directions. The public is advised to find alternate routes. The junction with Hwy 20 is also closed.

Daniel Bushman, editor of the Watrous Manitou Newspapers was on the scene about 90 minutes after the derailment. He says he could see smoke pluming into the sky as he approached the scene. He gives credit to local volunteer fire crews for handling a potentially dangerous situation. He says they are putting their lives on the line to keep the general public safe.

Highway 16 was closed for almost 40 hours because of a train derailment and fire west of Guernsey last December. CP Rail says 34 cars derailed at that time. The cars were carrying crude oil. About 1.5 million litres spilled.

Bushman says, you look at both of these situations with the rail cars rolling through and derailing and its a reminder about the safety aspect. He thinks this second derailment will renew discussions about the need for oil pipelines. He says its a scary situation when you have cars on fire like that.

(pictures courtesy of The Watrous Manitou publisher, Daniel Bushman – video from Paul Huls)