The derailment of a Burlington North Santa Fe, or BNSF, freight train damaged a building, caused delays to at least two MetrolinkOC trains headed for the Los Angeles area and downed some nearby power lines Sunday afternoon, officials said.
Little information has been released about the derailment, but BNSF Spokesperson Lena Kent confirmed no injuries were reported and the the four freight train cars that derailed were empty at the time of the incident. It happened at about 1:10 p.m. on 26th Street, between Sierra Pine Avenue and South Indiana Street, officials said.
A building made of tin that sits on the property of World Oil Terminal, an oil and natural gas company located on 26th Street, was damaged by the freight trains that went off the tracks, Kent said. The extent of the damage is not yet known, she said. Meanwhile, two trains headed from Oceanside to Union Station in downtown L.A. faced delays of between 10 and 20 minutes and one of those trains was forced to slow down its speed at one point.
There were also some downed power lines that are said to be resting on the train, which Southern California Edison is investigating, Kent said.
*TRAFFIC ALERT* Train derailment on 26th between Sierra Pine and Indiana. Traffic will be shut down for quite some time. pic.twitter.com/nUnwKju0we
— Vernon PD (@VernonPD) December 24, 2017
Officials have not yet released information about the cause of the derailment. However, Kent said the train would have been traveling within the 10 mph speed limit for trains entering the yard.
The incident and resulting train delays were confirmed in a series of tweets from MetrolinkOC beginning at 1:28 p.m.