Sheriff Orders Locals to Flee Oil-Train Disaster

Residents of a North Dakota town are being told to evacuate after train cars carrying crude oil jumped the tracks and exploded into flames, Valley News Live reports. No one was hurt when the cars were hit by an oncoming train near Fargo, WDay News 6 reports, but the accident occurred near an ethanol plant and is considered a "Hazmat incident." With a change in the weather expected to push down the fire's vast plumes of smoke, the sheriff's office wants residents of Casselton, a bedroom community of Fargo, to get out of there.

Fire fighters and sheriff's deputies are planning to go door-to-door to inform and assist people in the evacuation zone. "The sky is totally black from smoke," said a Casselton resident who spotted the black plumes at about 2pm and heard two explosions. "I could almost feel the house shake" after the second blast. "It was loud."