At 1:01 pm on Friday the Lawrence County Dispatch received a 911 call from a Union Pacific engineer stating the train he was piloting had went into emergency shutdown in Hoxie at the intersection of Gibson and Hwy 67, when the engineer exited the train to inspect the problem he saw a rather large fuel leak from on of the locomotives and called 911.
Hoxie Fire, Hoxie Police, Walnut Ridge Hazmat, Lawrence County OEM and an ambulance from Medic One were all sent to the scene. Once units arrived they discovered the tank was damaged and had at least 2 leaks in the tank spilling an estimated 100 gallons of diesel on the tracks.
A Hazmat Team from Union Pacific was dispatched to the scene from Little Rock to assist with the cleanup. Firefighters on scene discovered a piece of the brake assembly on the last locomotive had broken off the locomotive and damaged the tank, according to Union Pacific the train would have to be repaired before it could be moved.
Once the spill was contained, Walnut Ridge Hazmat was back in service. Hoxie Fire staged an engine at the scene as heavy equipment was moved in to repair the damaged engine. Their were no injuries in the incident.