Munitions Train From Weapons Station Derails

An nine-car freight train carrying military artillery shells from the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station derailed here Tuesday evening, prompting authorities to close roads and call in military explosives experts.

But officials stopped short of a full-scale evacuation of nearby homes and businesses after safety officials determined there was no danger of an explosion.

“I would say this had the potential to be devastating had the munitions exploded,” said Battalion Chief Allan R. White of the Westminster Fire Department, noting that an evacuation could have affected an estimated 1,000 residents within a mile of the derailment.

A pair of locomotives leading the train and two boxcars--including one loaded with crates of 2-foot-long, 38-caliber military projectiles--jumped the tracks just south of Westminster Boulevard at about 6:45 p.m., causing a diesel fuel spill from one of the engines.

Fire crews managed within hours to mop up the spill from the second of the two Southern Pacific locomotives, which dumped hundreds of gallons of fuel onto the tracks. Nearby streets were closed to traffic, but police did not evacuate any residents from the surrounding area, which is ringed mostly by light-industrial buildings and small shops.

Southern Pacific officials said it remained unclear what caused the derailment, which left the front locomotive twisted on the tracks. None of the cars flipped over, but the steel rails were twisted nearly to a 90-degree angle by the force of the accident. About 300 feet of track was damaged.

The only injury reported involved an unidentified naval weapons worker who tripped while examining the ammunition, fell down an embankment and suffered a sprained ankle. The worker was taken to Westminster Hospital.