Rail workers cleared the hazard of three derailed tankers cars Wednesday evening.
Crews labored from Tuesday night through late Wednesday evening to transfer ethanol from three derailed tanker cars. No spillage of the fuel was reported.
Provo Deputy Fire Chief Gary Jolley said crews initially had planned to pump the fuel from the toppled cars into tanker trucks, but decided late Tuesday to transfer the loads into three similar, empty tanker cars.
"Off-loading onto the trucks, they said, would have taken 48 hours. So, instead they found three empty cars like those that derailed and worked all night to off-load to those cars," Jolley said.
By Wednesday evening, the hazard was taken care of and Jolley said rail workers were gathering debris and "just doing recovery on the damaged equipment," and should be finished by the end of the evening.
The cars derailed about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday in south Provo, near 1800 South and 800 East.
The rails encountered some damage, too.
"One of the rails ... it looked like ribbon, it was damaged so badly," Jolley said.
Jolley said the tanker cars were part of a longer train hauling various military vehicles and other chemicals. Military equipment on a flat car was also damaged, but did not roll over.
The rail company is now trying to clear the main line of the cars and estimate the cost of damage.
Utah Railway, which operates the affected section of tracks, confirmed it still had workers on the scene Wednesday, but officials did not respond to inquiries as to the cause of the accident.
Cimaron Neugebauer contributed to this story
