Mike Heiser, a resident of Mosier, had purchased some plants Friday and was just getting ready to put them in the ground around noon when he heard a big crash, the “whoof” of an explosion.
He saw then smoke west of town and heard another “whoof.”
Heiser drove to where the Mosier exit overpass crossed the train tracks and saw that eight tanker trucks cars had derailed about 100 yards from the overpass, and one was burning.
They were, folding into each other like an accordion, he said, and three tankers were stacked on top of each other, one of which was burning.
Throughout the afternoon heavy black smoke and flames were visible from downtown Mosier, and a trailer park and homes in the west part of town were evacuated.
Students from the school were also evacuated to Wahtonka Community School in The Dalles.
Interstate 84 was closed to through traffic in both directions and motorists advised to use Washington State Route 14 to get through the gorge.
Mike Igo, who lives about six miles southeast of Mosier, said he saw heavy black smoke towards town.
“As I got down here the smoke was increasing, fire rigs were out and there was an oil train parked in town,” he said. “The cars were marked ‘1267,’ which means it was crude oil, probably from Wyoming.
“I walked close enough to see one on fire alongside the tracks, and then I left. Thank God it didn’t happen yesterday, with all the wind, it would have swept right through town.”
The plume of black smoke from the oil fire could be seen as far away as Third Street in The Dalles. plume of black smoke high into the sky and leading to evacuations.
No injuries were reported.
The train was operated by Union Pacific. A spokesman for the railroad didn't return calls immediately after the incident.
Silas Bleakley was working at his restaurant in Mosier when the train derailed, according to an Associated Press report.
"You could feel it through the ground. It was more of a feeling than a noise," said.
Bleakley said he went outside, saw the smoke and got in his truck and drove about 2,000 feet to a bridge that crosses the railroad tracks.
There, he saw tanker cars "accordioned" across the tracks.
Another witness, Brian Shurton, was driving in Mosier and watching the train as it passed by the town when he heard a tremendous noise.
"All of a sudden, I heard 'Bang! Bang! Bang!' like dominoes," he told the Associated Press
He, too, drove to the bridge overpass to look down and saw the cars flipped over before a fire started in one of the cars and he called 911, he said.
"The train wasn't going very fast. It would have been worse if it had been faster," said Shurton, who runs a windsurfing business in nearby Hood River.
Environmentalists reacted quickly to the accident and called it a reminder of why oil should not be transported by rail.
"Moving oil by rail constantly puts our communities and environment at risk," said Jared Margolis, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity in Eugene, Oregon.
Matt Lehner, a spokesman from the Federal Railroad Administration, said a team of investigators was headed to the scene from Vancouver, Wash.
Associated Press writers Gillian Flaccus and Steven Dubois in Portland and Alina Hartounian in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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