GALENA, Ill. – A BNSF Railway freight train loaded with crude oil derailed Thursday near the northern Illinois city of Galena and erupted into flames, authorities said.
The train derailed around 1:20 p.m. in a rural area where the Galena River meets the Mississippi, said Jo Daviess County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Moser. The blaze didn’t prompt any evacuations.
“There’s no structures and no houses in that area,” Moser said.
Galena City Administrator Mark Moran told the Dubuque Telegraph Herald newspaper in Iowa that eight tankers had left the track. “Two of those were still upright. The other six were not,” she said.
The train had 103 cars loaded with crude oil, along with two buffer cars loaded with sand.