Federal inspectors have twice found hundreds of defects in the locomotives and railcars the Union Pacific railroad has been using at its Bailey Yards in North Platte, the world’s largest rail yard – the site of an explosion this fall.
Investigators haven’t confirmed the cause of the Sept. 14 blast in a remote corner of the yard., but none of the defects seem to explain why a shipping container filled with toxic acid exploded. The explosion was limited to the single container.
Investigators appear to be looking into the questionable decision to load dozens of plastic barrels of perchloric acid in a shipping container with a wood floor and possibly atop wooden pallets since the acid is known to react with organize material like wood
Andy Foust is a local leader of the rail union for the workers who were switching the railcars just before the explosion. He says perchloric acid becomes so volatile when it comes in contact with wood the car was doomed from the day it was loaded”
The explosion highlighted not only potential problems at the sprawling North Platte railyard, but also the national rail network’s reliance on everyone involved in shipping hazardous materials taking proper precautions.
As the Nebraska explosion made clear, there can be problems that are hard to spot before potentially disastrous accidents occur. Some details about the explosion might never be known because the shipping container carrying the acid was destroyed.
Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Warren Flatau said the leaked acid reacted with the wooden floor of the container, and any other organic material such as pallets inside the container
The resulting explosion propelled shrapnel up to 600 feet away and prompted first responders to evacuate everyone within a mile outside the railyard. After the first container exploded, a second, believed to hold memory foam, fell down on top of it and caught fire, but no other cars ignited.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told a gathering of rail labor leaders in Nebraska the explosion could have been much worse and “grabbed national headlines” just like the fiery Norfolk Southern derailment and explosion in Ohio last February.
Buttigieg says had the wind in North Platte been blowing a little bit different or had things gone just a little bit different in the yard that day the results might have been tragic.