On Sept. 14, there was an explosion inside a shipping container at the world’s largest rail yard, in North Platte, Nebraska. According to AP, the “explosion occurred inside an intermodal container on a railcar at Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard in North Platte, though it wasn’t clear what caused the explosion, railroad spokeswoman Robynn Tysver said.”
The explosion occurred around noon Central Time (17:00 UTC), and was extinguished at 5:30 p.m. The North Platte Fire Department said in a tweet on X that evacuations were done because the fire at the railyard involved “heavy toxic smoke.” Reports are that no one was injured. No cars derailed.
AP further reported: “Authorities evacuated everyone within a one-mile radius of the explosion in the western end of the railyard because of the smoke, and U.S. Highway 30 was closed between North Platte and Hershey. Interstate 80 wasn’t affected by the smoke. It wasn’t immediately clear how many homes were included in the mostly rural area that was evacuated on the edge of the city. North Platte, which is about 230 miles (370 km) east of Denver and about 250 miles (400 km) west of Omaha, has a population of about 23,000.”
