North Bay ONTC train derailment sees 3 homes evacuated, no injuries

Three homes were evacuated after anOntario Northland trainderailed early Tuesdaymorning, about 10 kilometresnorth of North Bay, close to Trout Lake.

Ontario Northland saidthere are no environmental concerns.

The derailmenthappened off of Highway 63, known also as Trout Lake Road, at about 5:30 a.m.

The company said 25 empty rail cars went off the tracks while travelling northbound to Engelhart though there were atotal of58 cars in the train. There is no word on the cause of the derailment.

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No injuries are reported, but the derailment site wasclose to a number of houses,and to Trout Lake, North Bay's source of drinking water.

North Bay mayor Al McDonald was updating residents on Facebook, and said"there is no evidence of any leakage, train cars were empty although there may be residue left in cars, no evidence of environmental damage."

"Health unit on site and engaged. All authorities are involved," he said.

Later in the day during an interview with Up North host Jason Turnbull, McDonaldsaid work was continuing to examine all of the rail cars, which had been used to transport sulfuric acid.

"We won't know 100% sure until all the tank cars are actually turned upright," he said. "But from every expert on site, they could not smell any sulfuric acid."

As for the families displaced by the derailment, McDonald said two of them were cleared to go home, however they still felt unsafe. The third family, he said, would be out of their home for a few days while rail cars are removed from their property.

DaveClementlives about 200 metres from the derailment site.

"This derailment happened right on a stream, which leads straight into the lake," he said. "So it would have been a matter of minutes or seconds for material to get from the railway into the water supply for a city of 50,000people."

Clement said when the train cars toppled off the tracks and came barreling down an embankment, it's lucky no damage was done to nearby homes.

"[The rail cars]were snapping 18- to20-inch maple trees. Just, you know, shearing them off like toothpicks. We could've had our home and our entire environment completely obliterated like what happened up in Gogama last year, or in Lac-Mgantic. These images stay with you, you know?"

OPP said on Twitter around10 a.m. thatHighway 63 between Silver Lady Lane and Four Mile Lake Rd remainedclosed although a detour was available. Police opened both lanes of the highway around 2:30 in the afternoon.

Ontario Northland said in an e-mail to CBC that "crews are on site assessing the situation and planning for re-railing."