UPDATE 2/22/2010 @ 08:41

KEENE, CA - During the night crews made further progress and made entry into the tunnel to fight and extinguish the remaining fires. It appears that the tunnel has received some minor structural damage which will be verified by the railway's structural engineer. 1 Patrol from station 11 Keene, with 2 firefighters will remain on scene until further notice.

UPDATE 2/21/2010 @ 17:53

KEENE, CA - During the night operations additional train cars became involved in fire. One of the train cars contained corn meal and the other contained polystyrene plastic pellets. The fire was producing a thick black column of smoke, due to this new hazard an additional alert went out to residents within a two mile radius to take shelter in their homes and close all doors and windows.

Railroad crews and fire department personnel worked this afternoon to remove the two involved cars from the tunnel in order to suppress the fire. The fire in those two cars is now contained however crews are still dealing with fire inside the tunnel. Our goal is to have the remaining fire contained by midnight tonight and lift the evacuation orders allowing residents to return to their homes.

Orginal Press Release

KEENE, CA - Saturday February 20th 2010 at approximately 9:31 P.M., a call was received by the Kern County Fire Department, for a train derailment at the entrance to tunnel 9, on the Tehachapi Loop south of Keene. 18 Kern County Firefighters responded to the incident assisted by Kern County Environmental Health Agency, Kern County Sheriff, CHP and Railroad crews.

Upon arrival, fire crews were faced with a cargo train with 2 tanker cars that had derailed at the entrance to tunnel 9. At least one of the tanker cars was involved in fire. According to the train manifest the tanker involved in fire was carrying alcohol.
Due to the nature of the toxic cloud, and as a precaution, local residents were evacuated for a 1 mile radius. A temporary shelter was set up at the Tehachapi High School.

Railway engineers uncoupled and removed the unaffected part of the train.

There were no reported injuries.