By Don Thompson
The Associated Press
BAXTER, Calif. — Rescuers searched for a missing train crew member among scorched and crumpled rail cars after a maintenance train derailed and sparked a fire in the Sierra Nevada.
The crash Thursday killed one person, injured eight others and spilled thousands of gallons of fuel in a forested area about 60 miles east of Sacramento. Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze late Thursday, and crews worked through the night to clean up the site and search for the missing worker.
Union Pacific officials said they hoped to reopen the tracks on Friday.
Seventeen freight and passenger trains use that stretch each day, and two Amtrak trains were delayed Thursday because of the wreck, spokesman Mark Davis said.
Authorities confirmed that one man had died in the wreckage, but his body could not immediately be removed. The missing worker was believed to have been near him, said Lt. Jeff Ausnow of the Placer County Sheriff’s Department.
“The last information that we received is that they were together attempting to apply emergency brakes when the accident occurred,” Ausnow said.
The cause of the derailment was being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The maintenance train’s crew, which included one Union Pacific employee and nine contract workers, was working on the tracks about two miles south of Interstate 80 when six of the 10 rail cars derailed around 11 a.m. The train was carrying 11,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 6,000 gallons of hydraulic fluid, acetylene, oxygen and propane.
“This is a huge spill,” said Tina Rose, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “That is a lot of hazardous materials.”
The victim’s identity was not released. Eight people were treated for minor injuries, authorities said.
The contract workers were employed by Harsco Track Technologies of South Carolina. Company spokesman Ken Julian said he had no information about injured employees.
Two Amtrak trains were blocked Thursday by the wreckage, said spokeswoman Vernae Graham. An eastbound train was forced to stop in Sacramento and a westbound train stopped in Sparks, Nev., affecting about 260 passengers who were taken across the Sierra on buses, she said.