Train carrying oil derails, catches fire in Canada

Officials in Canada said a derailed freight train carrying crude oil and propane continued to burn Wednesday morning, while they prepared to launch aerial surveillance and more than 100 residents remained evacuated from their homes. There were no deaths or injuries. "The biggest concern is the propane cars," the fire chief of the nearby community of Plaster Rock, Tim Corbin, said Wednesday morning, according to CBC News. "That's our biggest concern because if they happen to explode, we're looking at major damage." The derailment late Tuesday in a sparsely populated region of New Brunswick again raised concerns about the increasing use of rail to transport oil throughout North America. In July, 47 people were killed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, when a train carrying crude oil derailed. According to AP, Canadian National Railway spokesman Jim Feeny said crews will use a helicopter to determine the source and extent of the fire. Both he and Marc Belliveau, a disaster management associate with the Red Cross, confirmed that it was still burning. Feeny said it appears that 15 cars and one locomotive derailed, but he said it was not yet clear what caused it. The train consisted of 122 cars and four locomotives. Of the cars that derailed, four were carrying propane and four were carrying crude oil, Feeny said.