Local, state, federal agencies will investigate oil train derailment in Whatcom County
An oil train fire in Custer was out as of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, Dec. 23, after seven tank cars derailed Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 22, and nearby residents were evacuated.
Local, state and federal agencies were just beginning the investigation and it was too early to discuss a cause, said Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo.
“We’ve not been able to get close enough to the site to make an evaluation,” Elfo said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. “We want a thorough review and a thorough investigation to determine what caused the accident.”
No injuries were reported, Elfo said, and there was no damage reported to nearby homes and businesses.
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board were at the fire scene, along with the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency, the state Utilities and Transportation Commission, the state Department of Ecology, several local law-enforcement agencies and fire departments, and the sheriff’s Division of Emergency Management.
“We have the right people to determine what happened and why,” Elfo said.
Seven cars of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train derailed at 11:46 a.m. Tuesday just south of the intersection of Portal Way and Main Street.
Five tank cars initially caught fire, and later Tuesday only two were burning, said railroad spokeswoman Courtney Wallace.
Wallace said the northbound train was hauling more than 100 tank cars of crude oil from the Bakken Formation in North Dakota, bound for the Phillips 66 Refinery west of Ferndale.
She was uncertain what type of cars derailed, but such tank cars can carry up to about 35,000 gallons, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
When the train derailed, Jenny Reich was in the back of her Whimsy Glass Art Studio, facing the tracks that parallel Portal Way.
“There’s always switching going on over there. There are times you don’t even hear it because it’s so everyday,” Reich told The Bellingham Herald.
“Then I heard this big kaboom and it just shook. I told myself, ‘That’s not normal,’ “ Reich said.
Reich said she gathered her wallet, phone and her two dogs — a Bichon Frise and a Great Pyrenees, then drove to a nearby market to wait out the evacuation.
She said friends offered her a place to stay and she considered getting a hotel room but the evacuation order was lifted by 5 p.m.
“It could have been a lot worse but it wasn’t, and I’m thankful for that,” she said.
In a statement, Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu thanked residents for their patience and cooperation.
Custer resident Brenda McAfee Sims told The Herald via Facebook Messenger that she lives just outside the half-mile evacuation zone and “hunkered down” at home.
“I work at (Custer) Elementary School also and this has been a big threat for us all,” she said. “We have plans in place just In case this would have happened with kids at the building. So I’m confident we would have evacuated them all safely as well.”
Fire crews and government officials remained at the scene into Tuesday night, and roads remained closed to all but residents with ID, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said online.
Officials said the fire was being allowed to burn itself out and was not threatening a waterway or critical habitat.
Whatcom County Councilman Ben Elenbaas, who owns a nearby farm and works at the nearby BP Cherry Point Refinery, arrived at the scene as the first fire crews were arriving.
“It was the real deal,” Elenbaas told The Herald. “It wasn’t just a few cars that went off the tracks.”
As a BP operations foreman, Elenbaas is trained in the procedures required to control such a fire and was able to brief firefighters before specialized fire crews from the two refineries arrived.
Elenbaas said firefighters scouted the area for nearby hydrants and laid water supply hose.
He said the BP fire crew attacked from the south and the Phillips 66 crew approached from the north, both using water mixed with foam for fighting petroleum fires.
“This community is lucky to have those folks here,” Elenbaas said. “As soon as those guys got there, once they started flowing foam, it went from being a very impressive fire to ‘Let’s start thinking about cleanup.’ “
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 9:10 PM.
