Last Evacuees From Fiery Train Wreck Are Allowed to Go Home

At last. Two and a half weeks after a train derailment and propane fire completely emptied this town, residents returned home Friday under sunny skies and with sunny dispositions.

“It’s just great. I have never had a better day in my life,” Fred Maass, 80, said with a big smile as he prepared to enter the town.

Residents still had to pass through roadblocks intended to keep out sightseers. Carl Artz, a Waupaca County sheriff’s deputy, said about 60 to 80 cars had rolled through his station during the first two hours.

“They have all been real happy. . . . They just want to get home,” he said.

The entire central Wisconsin town of 1,700 was evacuated after 35 cars in a Wisconsin Central Ltd. train derailed at daybreak March 4.

Fourteen of the cars contained liquid propane, and the leaking fuel erupted in a fire that destroyed a feed mill. There were no injuries, but the blaze in the wrecked train cars continued for days, threatening a massive explosion.

As the evacuation stretched on, military vehicles helped some residents make quick trips in and out of town to rescue pets left behind in the rush to evacuate.

Several hundred people living more than a mile from the wreckage were allowed to return Monday after crews burned off most of the propane by pumping it out of the tankers. But the residents within a mile of the site were kept out, except to visit their homes briefly to inspect for damage.

Roughly 15% to 20% of homes were found to be damaged, mostly from broken water pipes. Natural gas had been cut off to the town during the evacuation.

Wisconsin Central said Thursday it has already paid $1 million in claims because of the derailment. It resumed running trains Tuesday on the repaired line where the derailment occurred. The cause of the accident is under investigation.