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Freight train carrying crude oil derails, catches fire in northern Ontario

A train derailed in a remote area of northern Ontario over the weekend. Stephen Host / The Canadian Press

TIMMINS, Ont. – A clean-up operation is underway after a CN Rail freight train carrying crude oil derailed and caught fire in a remote area of northern Ontario over the weekend.

A CN spokesman says the incident took place just before midnight on Saturday, about 80 kilometres south of Timmins, Ont., in a remote wooded area.

Patrick Waldron says no one was injured as a result of the incident.

Waldron says 29 railway cars in the 100-car train derailed, with seven catching fire.

He says CN has sent crews and equipment to the site of the incident and removed 71 cars from the derailment site on Sunday.

He says crews worked overnight in bitter winter conditions to get closer to the site of the derailment, where a fire was still burning on Monday.

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Waldron says CN’s environmental crews have determined that spilled product from the railway cars has been contained in the derailment area on the frozen, snow covered ground, and no waterways appear to have been affected.

CN says it is working with the Transportation Safety Board and Ontario’s environment ministry as it continues to deal with the incident.

The derailment, which blocked a main railway line, also resulted in Via Rail having to cancel trains operating between Toronto and Winnipeg.

Via said alternate transportation would be provided.

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