state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, decided to blow up a dozen Union Pacific propane tankers that had derailed, as the safest way to deal with them, and clear the railroad, so it can get repaired and back in business

The derailment occurred Saturday when 24 of the 165 cars of a Union Pacific freight train went off the tracks. One car landed on its side and was leaking propane.

The conductor and engineer were not hurt in the derailment, whose cause was not immediately known. Nine rail tankers carried propane, and two had biodiesel.

Officials initially planned to move the rail cars but worried that leaking propane could cause an explosion and injure the crew.

Pulver posted photos and video online showing the fireball about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City. The nearest town is Eureka, with less than 1,000 residents, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) away.

Of the 24 cars that were derailed, nine were carrying propane and two were carrying biodiesel, Pulver said. An explosion expert contracted with Union Pacific conducted the detonation.

The detonation was part of an ongoing, dayslong effort involving at least 60 emergency responders from multiple agencies to clean up the tangle of train cars.



https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900063332/crews-continue-work-to-clean-up-tangle-of-derailed-train-cars-in-juab-county.html
https://www.firefighternation.com/articles/2019/04/utah-official-blow-up-derailed-train-cars.html
https://www.facebook.com/BMWEDIBT/posts/2280438192013668

Due to the date (April 1st) and the scarcity of online reports from a variety of news sources, at 1st I thought this was an April fools day hoax... it took some digging to verify, more digging than usual... and that's odd, as I've never heard of the rail road company blowing shit up to deal with a derailment

Thanks Ron!