Freight train derails in northwestern Iowa after bridge collapse

A Union Pacific Railroad train derailed on Sunday in Sibley, Iowa due to a bridge collapse. No one was reported as injured, though evacuations were ordered in a 5-mile radius around the scene of the derailment. In addition, emergency personnel blocked all waterways near the derailment.

Sibley is in the far northwestern corner of Iowa, about 200 miles northwest of Des Moines. Parts of the 3,000-population town were evacuated. Aerial video of the scene showed dozens of train cars in a heap, in flames, the smoke rising from the front. The train was hauling fertilizer and ammonium nitrate.

Residents not evacuating were encouraged to open their windows on both sides and position themselves in the middle of their homes as a “preventative safety measure in case one of the rail cars on fire explodes.”