OSHAWA, Ont. — Residents of a neighbourhood east of Toronto are being asked to voluntarily evacuate the area after a Canadian Pacific freight train derailed near a school.
At least 20 train cars went off the tracks at about 2:15 p.m. in Oshawa, and one of its tankers burst into flames.
The Durham Region fire department and area police are on the scene, but no injuries have been reported.
“We have fire services on scene, we have EMS on standby,” said Durham Police Sgt. Nancy Van Rooy.
“We’re working in conjunction with CP rail to determine what these train cars are carrying and what will be our next procedure.”
Police are asking people within a one-kilometre radius of the derailment site, which is just north of Park Road South and Highway 401, to evacuate as a precaution.
Van Rooy says area schools are also being evacuated.
Several of the cars are jammed up under an roadway overpass, and other cars are scrambled in an accordion pattern in a rail corridor bordered by homes.
The train had been carrying freight boxes and liquid drums, and two of the cars were driven into the yard of a home that backs onto the tracks.