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Freight cars spill near Laton

But hazardous cargo stays intact, officials say.

LATON -- A tanker car carrying potentially dangerous agricultural fertilizer derailed and toppled over Sunday afternoon north of Laton.

No one was injured in the 1 p.m. accident, though a few homes southeast of the derailment were evacuated as a precaution, said John Cooper, a captain with the Fresno County Fire District.

The tanker car -- filled with 153,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia -- came off the tracks.

It came to rest in a heap of about 10 other cars. None of the chemical spilled, Cooper said.

A car carrying residue of denatured alcohol, another potentially hazardous chemical, "did not derail so it did not pose a problem," Cooper said.

Twenty-one of the 111 freight cars derailed, said Lena Kent, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.

The train, which was traveling from Vancouver, Wash., to Barstow, carried wood, aluminum, cement and flour products.

Some flour and cement spilled near the tracks, creating a white plume.

Errant cars somehow caused nearby grass to catch fire, Cooper said.

Authorities didn't know Sunday afternoon what caused the derailment.

"Until they get out there and start pulling cars apart, they won't be able to tell what happened," Cooper said.

Authorities blocked off about a mile of Fowler Avenue south of Davis Avenue in southern Fresno County while they surveyed the scene.

They stood about a quarter-mile away and looked at the bent cars through binoculars.

Investigators who surveyed the train from a sheriff's helicopter verified that no hazardous materials leaked from the cars, Cooper said.

Cleanup crews, which planned to use cranes to hoist the cars back onto the tracks, arrived on the scene about 6 p.m.

They expected to have the mess cleaned up by midnight, Cooper said.

Passengers on Amtrak trains, which travel those tracks, were expected to be bused between Fresno and Hanford, and some trains might have been rerouted on Union Pacific tracks, Kent said.

Eight or nine Amtrak trains were affected.

According to Kent, freight-train traffic "will be halted and come to a standstill" until cleanup is complete.

The reporter can be reached at jfitzenberger@fresnobee.com or 622-2419.