Train derailment makes for messy cleanup
Emergency personnel cleaning up a messy train derailment near the Salton Sea in southeastern California Tuesday could have used several tons of buffalo wings in addition to their regular equipment.
The derailment, which involved 20 railcars and no injuries, release a flood of salad dressing along the tracks near the city of North Shore.
“There was blue cheese — a lot of it,” Robert Becker, fire apparatus engineer and hazardous materials specialist for Riverside County Fire Department, told the Desert Sun newspaper.
The accident occurred about 4 a.m. Tuesday, toppling about half of the freight train's double-stacked cars and snapping power lines along the tracks.
The only cargo of a non-dietary concern was a load of a combustible, non-toxic turpentine, Union Pacific spokesman Joe Arbona told the Desert Sun.
According to officials, a railcar carrying 4,500 gallons of the petroleum substance did not leak.
The blue cheese and a load of concrete sealant did leak into a nearby canal that connects to the Salton Sea, but fire officials do not believe that the materials posed any serious environmental or health problem.
The cause of the accident is under investigated.
Train derailment makes for messy cleanup
