The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has sent a pair of investigators to Strathroy to probe the cause of a train derailment in the middle of the town.
A CN freight train left the tracks between Caradoc St. and Richmond St. around 4:20am on Wednesday. The train had 128 cars in total, 13 of which derailed, scattering debris around the site. Many of the town's level rail crossings were closed as a result.
No one was hurt in the incident, but petro alkylate, an environmentally sensitive product used in the manufacturing and preparation of other products such as plastics, leaked from one of the overturned rail cars.
"The small leak was stopped and the spilled product was contained to the track. Environmental crews are on site cleaning it up," said CN spokesperson Jonathan Abecassis in a written statement.
One of the other cars involved had residue from liquefied petroleum gas inside but none of that product was released. The remaining derailed cars were either empty or contained paper or soybeans.
Two TSB investigators arrived late Wednesday morning and are expected to remain on scene for the remainder of the day.
"They are going to work on the site to gather as much information from the field as possible, inspect the rolling stock, look at the condition of the track, interview witnesses, and get the information from a locomotive event recorder," said TSB spokesperson Chris Krepski.
CN police and CN officials are also investigating the incident.
Strathroy-Caradoc Mayor Joanne Vanderheyden said derailments are a risk communities with railways passing through them face on a daily basis.
"Nobody expects anything like this to happen. You have an accident on a road everyday. We have speed limits in place, we have all sorts of things we want to make sure are there for the safety of our residents but still accidents happen," said Vanderheyden. "Whether it's an airplane, whether it's train, whether it's a car, they will happen."
Vanderheyden commended police, firefighters, and city workers for their quick response to the derailment. She credits previous mock disaster exercises with preparing first responders for such an occurrence.
Residents curious about the derailment have flocked to the scene, snapping pictures.
"People need to stay behind the lines, not go on the tracks to make sure they keep themselves safe because we are trying to keep everything contained so that we can clean it up," said Vanderheyden.
The derailment also forced VIA Rail to cancel its passenger train from Sarnia to London for Wednesday and Thursday. Regular service will resume on Friday.