Local authorities sit trackside along a train derailment near the intersection of 15 St. and Blackfoot Trail S.E. in Calgary on Sept. 11, 2013.CHRIS BOLIN/The Globe and Mail
A train carrying a flammable petroleum product derailed in an inner-city Calgary neighbourhood on Wednesday night.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said the slow moving northbound train derailed just after leaving its Calgary rail yard at 5 p.m. local time.
The derailed cars did not leak, and no one was injured, a CPR spokesman said.
Calgary assistant deputy fire chief Brian McAsey said seven cars derailed, with six that flipped over.
He said emergency crews would be at the site overnight as heavy equipment is brought in. The tank cars will be emptied of their product and righted. Gas lines around the derailment were shut down, although there were no signs of a gas leak, Mr. McAsey said.
A rail yard, a public pool and an unspecified number of houses were evacuated, he said.
The fire department was "dealing with the immediate danger of the overturned rail cars," Mr. McAsey said at the scene of the accident.
"We're making sure there's no fire or explosion as a result. We're making sure the public is safe from any sort of release."
He added, "we're just going methodically, slowly about it. It seems to be going quite well."
CPR response crews were also at the site.
The railway company has had several recent oil spills. Five tank cars ferrying crude oil and operated by CPR derailed near Jansen, Sask., in May. One car leaked about 575 barrels of oil.
Further, a CPR freight train holding oil derailed in April in Ontario. Two of the roughly 20 cars contained crude. About 400 barrels of oil spilled, although CP's original estimate was four barrels of oil.
In March, CPR had a derailment and spill in Minnesota. There, 14 of a train's 94 cars derailed, leaking about 1,000 gallons, or about 24 barrels, of oil.
A train carrying crude oil derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Que., in July, killing dozens of people. CPR was contracted to ship the crude, and it handed off the cars to Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd. MM&A was operating the train when it derailed in Lac-Mégantic.
Energy companies have turned to rails to transport oil products as growth in the oil and gas industry outpaces pipeline capacity.
Kelly Cryderman
Carrie Tait
Jeffrey Jones