JUAB COUNTY, Utah, April 1, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Officials have released two videos of an explosives expert conducting a controlled detonation of 11 rail tankers Sunday night, after a train transporting hazardous materials derailed Saturday morning.
The incident occurred in the area of the Little Sahara turnoff in Juab, which is near the unincorporated community of Jericho, about 8 miles south of Eureka.
A post by Juab County Sheriff’s Office on Facebook late Sunday said, “at approximately 9:30 p.m. a controlled detonation of 11 rail tankers was conducted near U.S. Highway 6 and mile marker 124. This was in response to the derailment of 24 rail cars that occurred on March 30.”
On Monday afternoon, Juab County officials shared two videos of that detonation.
The post states that this was the “safest way to mitigate the volatility of the rail cars that were carrying propane and bio-diesel.”
Nine rail tankers were carrying propane, while two contained bio-diesel.
An expert on site breached all 11 tankers with explosives and ignited them, setting off “a loud explosion followed by a large fireball,” the post said.
Fire crews stayed at the site throughout the night while the flammables burn off, the post said, adding that several more days of cleanup are anticipated.
Multiple agencies, including the Utah National Guard and a crew from the Orem Fire Department, responded to the scene of the derailment over the weekend.
On Sunday evening, Juab County Sheriff Douglas Anderson issued a news release stating that the 165-car Union Pacific train derailed “while traveling southwest, nearly adjacent to milepost #124.5 on State Road 6. Of the 165 cars, 24 cars derailed off the track and the other cars stayed upright and intact.”
The statement said that approximately 60 first responders from throughout Utah responded to stabilize the accident scene.
