A leaking rail car forced the closure of Highway 1 through east Saint John for several hours Monday afternoon.
Emergency crews were called to the NB Southern Railway (NBSR) yard in the Haymarket Square area around 3:30 p.m.
Mike Carr, deputy chief of the Saint John Fire Department, said a rail car containing spent sulfuric acid was leaking from the dome area.
Carr said an immediate isolation area of 150 metres was set up, which forced them to close Highway 1 and the Crown Street overpass.
“That has nothing to do with wind, that’s just everybody out first, and then we’ll re-evaluate,” said Carr.
Carr said they developed an incident action plan in conjunction with NBSR, the RST industrial response team, and the fire department’s Hazmat team.
“RST went in and we supported them as they checked the dome area for leakage. They determined it was a valve,” he said.
The rail car was depressurized and the valve was replaced within about two hours of the initial call, which allowed them to reopen Highway 1.
Fire officials said the on-ramp to Highway 1 and Haymarket Square remained closed until around 9:30 p.m. Monday, when the rail car was moved from the area.
No one was hurt. There is no word at this point how much product may have leaked from the rail car.
Josh Hennessy, acting platoon chief, said they had to briefly halt operations shortly before 5 p.m. Monday to attend two possible structure fires on Taylor Avenue and Peters Street.
Both fires were quickly extinguished and crews were able to return to the Hazmat call, he said.
