MACOUN - Amber Mantei can’t believe the reaction to her photos and video of the train derailment that occurred near Macoun on Thursday.
The Estevan-area resident was heading to Agribition in Regina with her husband Jordan when they drove past the incident at around 9:20 a.m. Thursday morning.
Her footage has been picked up by numerous news outlets throughout the country.
“We believe the incident must have happened just before we got there,” Mantei told the Mercury. “We could see a light grey smoke in the distance as we were coming up to Macoun.”
Her husband thought the train had possibly started a grass fire, because the smoke looked to be next to the tracks by Macoun.
But as they were approaching the village, there was a large, fiery explosion. They didn’t hear anything, but the flames went up over 100 feet in the air.
“Then it went from the light grey smoke to pure black [smoke]. As you can see from the pictures and the video, it just billowed black smoke after that. One of the tankers must have ruptured from whatever started it.”
Her husband slowed their truck as they were approaching the scene, and Mantei started taking photos and a video that was about one minute and 40 seconds in length. But as they approached the flames, he sped up because Mantei said the heat was “quite intense”.
“He thought that if this exploded already, something else might explode as we go by,” said Mantei.
Their vehicle didn’t sustain any damage, such as burned paint, from being so close to the heat.
Despite the smoke, visibility wasn’t problematic at that point. Mantei pointed out the smoke was going straight up in the air.
“You could make out the few rail cars that were closer to the fire and had tipped over, but you could not see beyond that, because it was pure black,” said Mantei.
Later, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure reported zero visibility in the area.
Mantei believes they happened upon the scene just minutes after the derailment happened. The RCMP had not arrived at that point. And as they were approaching Midale, the fire trucks for the Town of Midale/RM of Cymri Fire and Rescue and First Responders were leaving the station.
Mantei never imagined her work would get so much attention. Family members in Alberta told her she was on the news. A student journalist from B.C. was looking for information and access to her photos.
“It was pretty exciting and weird at the same time of having that much attention, and also that the photos turned out so well, because I was shooting with just my phone through the truck glass, and it’s rare that something would have come out so clear,” she said.
Many people have praised the video and photos online, but a few have criticized her over it. And there have been discussions about transportation of materials such as oil and grain, even though oil wasn’t in the tankers. Two of the involved rail cars were carrying liquified petroleum gas, which she said would explain the explosion.
