© Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian PressA Canadian Pacific freight train sits derailed on a failing bridge over the Bow River in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, June 27, 2013.
Officials now hope to use heavy cables to secure the final five cars, as well as a sixth empty one, and keep them out of the river.
"The last thing we want is these cars running down the river, and causing problems downstream at other bridges or anything else," Acting Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc said Thursday morning, after earlier stressing: "Right now, the public is safe."
Emergency crews evacuated an 800-metre radius of the site after the 3:30 a.m. derailment. The evacuated section includes a section of Deerfoot Trail, a major Calgary thoroughfare. That closure will further leave traffic in near-gridlock in Alberta's biggest city, as flooding closures were already causing extensive delays.
The CP rail train was mostly over the bridge early Thursday morning when its crew noticed it had partially derailed. They called 911.
There were no injuries and no leaks are yet reported, CP spokesman Ed Greenberg said in an e-mail. "The cause is under investigation," he added.
Crews are setting up booms downstream, to catch some of the diesel-like substance if it is ultimately spilled.
Images from the scene show a single section has buckled, and is facing down toward the river. Mr. Uzeloc said that section dropped two feet between 4:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. local time. But, at 8 a.m., Mr. Uzeloc said the bridge hadn't moved in 45 minutes.
The Bonnybrook bridge is just southeast of the downtown core, and the surrounding area - a mix of industrial and commercial land - has been evacuated. No homes have been affected. Mr. Uzeloc said he did not know when roads would reopen.
"Until we have a better idea on whether we can safely get them out, I don't want other people in the area ...Obviously, the safety of everybody is more important than the commute in," he said.
With traffic cameras already showing long delays, Mayor Naheed Nenshi urged residents of the city's southeast - who would typically rely on the Deerfoot - to "please just stay home until we get roads opened."
There are environmental concerns, though the substance the train is carrying is flammable but not necessarily explosive, the fire chief said. The bridge typically sits about eight metres above water level, though water levels remain high after last week's flood.
CP is bringing in a crane, but lifting a full rail car is a monumental task. They each weigh about 35,000 kilograms.
By 8 a.m., officials had removed all but six train cars from the bridge. One is empty, and the other five are carrying a petroleum substance similar to diesel. CP couldn't say what it is.
Crews are now focusing on stabilizing those five cars - by, for instance, stringing cable through them, so that they either don't fall, or don't float away if they do fall. Officials will also try and empty the rail cars, though that could require workers to go onto the bridge, something Mr. Uzeloc hopes to avoid. That process could also take at least four hours.
"I don't want to put anybody on the bridge unless I absolutely have to," he said.
It wasn't the only emergency fire crews were facing. A blaze broke out at an office building close to the badly damaged Stampede grounds area downtown. The fire was quickly extinguished and no one was injured.
Near the derailment site, Brad Lorne, Calgary's deputy fire chief, said the department has trained for multiple disasters at once, but those in the mock exercises find it difficult to believe it can actually occur.
"Under a situation like we have in the city, we're working like crazy to fix the problem with the flooding, and that disaster. The fire department's ready and we've been handling lots of things with the manpower that we have," he said. "The curve ball is the 3 o'clock in the morning phone call that we have a rail incident. We deal with it."
After flooding hit Calgary last week, city-owned bridges were immediately inspected, crews said. But this rail bridge is under federal jurisdiction. CP told fire crews it was inspected Saturday, and its rails were inspected Monday.
Officials said it was too early to say whether the failure was specifically a result of flooding.
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