Derailed train was carrying sulfuric acid

At approximately 8:40 a.m. on February 13, Socorro County Fire Departments were dispatched to Hwy 116 in northern Socorro County in reference to a train derailment. The main concern of the seven-car derailment being three cars bearing sulfuric acid.

According to Fred Berger, Socorro County Emergency Manager's incident report, the New Mexico Emergency Operations Center (NMEOC) switchboard was notified of the initial dispatch information at 8:54 a.m. Berger arrived on the scene simultaneously with Midway Fire Chief Marc Wheeler.

Agencies on scene were State Police, BNSF railway, SCSO, Midway Fire Dept and Socorro Fire Department, reported Berger.

“We were able to respond quickly to requests and the coordination of communication among the multiple agencies was phenomenal. Every agency was cooperating, communicating and we had operational procedures in place to be able to disseminate information quickly,” Socorro County Manager Andy Lotrich, said.

Berger reported that he contacted BNSF, which advised that seven cars had derailed, three of which contained an unknown amount of sulfuric acid. They also advised that no cars were leaking at the time.

Berger and Wheeler conducted an in-person scene survey and confirmed no evidence that the three cars carrying sulfuric acid had been compromised. They noted that one car carrying soybeans had minor spillage, and two other cars carrying dry lime also had minor spillage.

The NMEOC switchboard was contacted, and an update was given. According to the report, NMEOC advised that BNSF was taking control of the scene and that they would contact Socorro County units if they were needed during the recovery operations. Emergency management operations were deactivated at that point, and Socorro County Fire units were cleared from the scene.

Public Information Officer Ray Wilson of New Mexico State Police reported no injuries and no hazardous material was released. The railroad company responded to clean up the derailment and investigate the cause, said Wilson.

At approximately 1:30 p.m. Russell Huffman of the EDC was on scene taking photos of the derailment. Huffman reported a battery acid smell and a close up photo revealed what appears to be significant damage on a car carrying Sulfuric acid.

“There was no danger,” Lotrich said in response to Huffman’s report, “When the derailed car was moved a small leak was discovered by the HAZMAT team that was immediately addressed and contained by BNSF and the HAZMAT team.”

BNSF confirmed that one gallon of sulfuric acid spilled, however, the product and impacted soil was removed and will be disposed of in accordance with state and federal regulations. There were no injuries and cause remains under investigation, reported a BNSF representative.

This incident is the second train derailment in Socorro County in the last twelve months.

The last train derailment was in Socorro on March 25 of 2024. According to the accident report from that incident, “the single main track derailed 36 railcars due to other rail and joint bar defects. The causal rail fracture was unable to be recovered due to debris and wreckage as a result of the derailment thus hindering further characterization of the fracture origin.”

PHOTO GALLERY: Multicar train derailment in Socorro

The report said the first car involved in the derailment was loaded and in the 17th position on the train.

A couple of weeks later, on April 18, 2024, around 10 a.m., four BNSF rail cars carrying grain derailed in Jarales, Valencia County.

Followed by a derailment eight days later, on April 26, 2024, 13 miles from Gallup. In that incident, 35 BNSF rail cars carrying 180,000 gallons of fuel near Interstate 40 derailed and caused a large fire.

Editor’s note: Russell Huffman, EDC publisher, contributed to this story. A request for comment from BNSF and New Mexico State Police were not available before deadline. However this is a developing story and updates will be made as information is made available. (This article was updated at 3:22 p.m. on Friday February 14.)