Central Minnesota Train Derailment: Cleanup Ongoing In Raymond

RAYMOND, MN — Crews from more than 30 fire departments and BNSF continue to work in Raymond after a 22-car train carrying ethanol and corn syrup derailed and caught fire early Thursday morning.

Community volunteers have provided "a seemingly endless supply of home-cooked food" since the crash, the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office said. "A heartfelt thanks to all. Please keep the workers and volunteers in your prayers."

The BNSF train derailed around 1 a.m. Thursday. Four of the cars carrying ethanol ruptured, caught on fire, and continue to burn through the morning.

Authorities evacuated the town of less than 800, forcing residents from their beds into bitter late-March temperatures.

Raymond's fire department is the lead agency on the incident, but state and federal authorities responded as well.

Environmental Protection Agency officials from the same regional office that responded to the East Palestine, Ohio derailment arrived on site and started monitoring the air around the derailment for toxic chemicals by 6:30 a.m. Thursday.

United States Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg briefed Gov. Tim Walz on the situation over the phone. Walz arrived at the scene in the morning to meet with residents and offer the state's "full support."

"I am immensely grateful for the swift, coordinated response between local, state, and national partners to ensure the immediate safety of the Raymond community," Walz said in a news release.

"The state’s multi-agency emergency response team will continue working on the ground to ensure health and safety. This incident has highlighted the critical need to invest in rail safety and the state’s emergency management response to prevent incidents like this from happening again."

BNSF CEO Katie Farmer apologized at a news conference with Walz and other Minnesota officials Thursday morning and said that the Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad works hard to prevent derailments.

The entire town of Raymond had to be evacuated because it is all within 1/2 mile (0.8 kilometers) of the derailment, and residents of about 250 homes were taken to a shelter in nearby Prinsburg. Farmer said anyone who has to get a hotel room will be reimbursed.

Residents were allowed to return to their homes around noon.

Walz and railroad officials said they aren't especially concerned about groundwater contamination from this derailment because much of the ethanol will burn off and the ground remains frozen.

"What you see right now is cars on top of each other, they’re burning, and it’s a scary situation. ... You see the tanker car burning, your first thought is that that’s a big bomb waiting to explode on that. I hope you know that the safeguards that were put in place ... is to make sure they don’t explode," Walz said. "And they are punctured, they are leaking. The good news probably is with the relatively frozen ground, that the ethanol will burn off."

Walz cited his budget proposal Thursday, which includes $600,000 for rail safety inspectors to ensure compliance with federal and state regulations and $300 million in funds to make safety improvements at rail crossings.

State agencies on site include the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the Department of Public Safety, and Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story.