A 15-member team of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) “Go Team” were ordered to the scene of a train derailment this (Friday) morning, in northwest Iowa’s Palo Alto County. The incident involving three locomotives and 101 rail cars, 100 of which were hauling ethanol, resulted in a massive fire that could be seen from about 8-miles away. Palo Alto County Sheriff Lynn Schultes says the accident happened near Graettinger at around 1-a.m.

The ethanol tanker cars had recently been filled at an ethanol plant in Superior, Iowa. Railroad crews were able to unhitch most of the tankers and move them away from the crash site. 27 tanker cars derailed during the incident. Initial reports indicated an unknown amount of ethanol spilled into a nearby creek. There were no reports of injuries or death.

Photo by Ryan Long/KCID in Spencer, via Radio Iowa.

The NTSB says the tanker cars involved in the crash are of a design known to have many vulnerabilities that create the risk of hazardous materials release or flammable liquids when those tanker cars are involved in an accident. Congress has mandated the DOT-111 style tanker cars be cease being used by 2029, and retrofitted, or replaced with a new, more robust DOT-117 standard tanker be used for hauling hazardous or flammable materials.