PECOS, Texas – UPDATE FRIDAY, 6:11 A.M.:
The Reeves County Sheriff’s Office confirmed a second fatality in a train derailment in the town of Pecos in West Texas.
The Associated Press said the two dead were Union Pacific employees.
ORIGINAL:
Officials in Pecos, Texas, are picking up the pieces after a train derailed, crashed into a building, killed one person and injured four others on Wednesday.
Pecos is located in Reeves County, approximately 75 miles southwest of Odessa. According to the county’s Facebook page, the train struck the City of Pecos' Chamber of Commerce building.
City officials said the train derailed after it collided with a tractor-trailer around 5 p.m. near the intersection of Oak Street and Dot Stafford Street.
During a Wednesday evening news conference, county officials said one of the four others injured suffered serious injuries and was transported to an Odessa hospital for further treatment.
The three others were treated for their injuries at a Pecos hospital.
Officials said three train cars that carried potentially hazardous materials ran off the track, but none of those cars leaked any of those materials. The only leak was diesel from an engine but that has since been contained.
Currently, there is no additional public safety threat in the aftermath of the train derailment, the county said.
