UP/C&NW Derailment Because of Bridge Collapse at Sibley, IA

(Satellite)

The derailment happened around 2:00pm May 16, 2021, and a 5-mile evacuation order went out around 3pm. That would include the entire town of Sibley, IA. There were no reports of injuries or fatalities. The fire was caused by the diesel fuel in the locomotives. 47 cars were derailed and they "were carrying asphalt, hydrochloric acid, which is often used to process steel, and potassium hydroxide — also known as lye. One of the cars had also been carrying liquid ammonia nitrate, a highly combustible fertilizer."  That fertilizer is the one that is mixed with diesel fuel to create bombs. Fortunately, only residue would be in the tank car since it was empty. [NYtimes]

safe_image for Train in Iowa Hauling Hazardous Materials Derails and Catches Fire

KTVO

"UPDATED 9:30 P.M.: A bridge collapse has caused a train to derail near Sibley, Iowa Sunday afternoon." [KTVO, source]

This bridge was my first guess as to which bridge collapsed. But after looking at the photos, it has to be this bridge that collapsed. A street view of the bridge on the north side clearly shows that the bents are wood. It appears that this bridge also uses wood.

Street View

As of a 9am 5/17/2021 update, the area in yellow is what is still under an evacuation order. I didn't realize until later that North is to the right on this map. That means that most of the downtown is still evacuated.

Sheriff's Office via KTVO

This view also indicates that the bridge has wood bents. However, it doesn't look like it collapsed. It doesn't look like the fire is being fed by diesel fuel from the locomotives as was reported. It looks like it is being fed by the contents of one or more tank cars! So this is another issue with tank car safety.

Screenshot @ 0:01

After seven hours it was still burning strong.

John Harker shared a post by Nathanial Brown Productions of three photos with the comment: "More views from the train derailment in Sibley, IA yesterday (Images from around 9PM). Sources today have released that the rail cars involved were carrying hydrochloric acid, potassium hydroxide, and asphalt. Emergency response crews determined this morning that it’d be best to allow the fire to burn out. The evacuation area was downsized, allowing many residents to return to their homes. Again, thank you to the first responders for their response to this “worst case scenario” accident, and the community members that have taken care of those on the front lines." 

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There were several comments on the various posts I saw mentioning UP's layoff of maintenance personnel, including bridge inspectors. Laying off people is an easy way to reduce costs so that the head honcho gets his $20 million bonus for meeting a threshold. But the head honcho has to be sure to move on to another company before the wrecks start happening. Just a few hours before this one, UP had another major derailment a little north of the MN-IA boarder (62 photos, another share, another view). The reports I've seen on that wreck have not been definitive about the presence of hazardous materials.

A post of a drone video that has some interesting comments

Of note: "not the main route but the detour. The main North/South route was blocked by the derailment in Albert Lea. This was the detour that UP was using."

1:42 YouTube drone video