LEON COUNTY, Texas - A Union Pacific freight train derailed early Thursday after the engineer initiated an emergency braking procedure to try to avoid a burning railroad bridge in a remote rural area of Leon County, the KWTX Web site reports.
The crew of the train escaped without injury before the fire engulfed some train cars.
The engines and cars that caught fire are a total loss, according to a News 10 reporter at the scene.
The trestle was too heavily damaged to be salvageable, officials said.
The fire, fed by diesel fuel from the engines tanks, produced a cloud of smoke visible from as far away as Palestine in East Texas.
Residents within about a mile and a half of the accident site were evacuated as a precaution.
The trestle is in a swampy area and was hard for emergency crews to reach, officials said.
The train derailed at about 4:30 a.m. Thursday as it crossed the trestle over Keechi Creek.
The fire, which charred about two acres, was under control by midday.
(This item appeared April 24, 2009, on the KWTX Web site.)
