CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LA MIRADA

Five railroad tanker cars derailed Thursday at a train yard in La Mirada, authorities said. No injuries were reported in the 6:19 a.m. accident near the intersection of Macaw Street and Herron Avenue, said Capt. Mike Brown of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Three of the tankers fell into La Mirada Creek, but none of them leaked into the waterway, Brown said. They were carrying ethanol, said Lena Kent, a spokeswoman for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.

One tanker on the ground was empty, she said, but another carrying potassium hydroxide, used as a bleach in the manufacture of soaps, glass and alkaline batteries, was leaking.

The train hauling the tankers had originated in Barstow and was en route to Los Angeles. It was traveling at a very slow speed, Kent said.

At 7 a.m. firefighters had shut down the north and southbound Metrolink tracks, causing delays until 10 a.m., when firefighters reopened the tracks, a Metrolink spokesman said.

The cause of the derailment was under investigation.

-- Ruben Vives