Investigators on Friday were continuing the search for a worker missing in the wreckage of a maintenance train that derailed, killing one person and injuring eight others, AP reported. The derailment Thursday in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Sacramento, spilled thousands of gallons (liters) of fuel near thick forest and sparked a fire that emitted plumes of dense, black smoke. Crews worked into the night to clean up the site after containing the blaze, as rescuers dug through rail cars lying in a zigzag pattern beside the tracks in hopes of finding the missing person. Authorities confirmed that one man had died, but his body could not immediately be removed from the wreckage. The missing worker was believed to be located near him, said Lt. Jeff Ausnow of the Placer County Sheriff's Department. «The last information that we received is that they were together attempting to apply emergency brakes when the accident occurred,» Ausnow said. The cause of the derailment was being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. The train's crew _ which comprised one Union Pacific employee and nine contract workers _ was working on the tracks when six of the 10 rail cars derailed around 11 a.m. The train was carrying 11,000 gallons (42,000 liters) of diesel fuel and 6,000 gallons (23,000 liters) of hydraulic fluid, acetylene, oxygen and propane. «This is a huge spill,» said Tina Rose, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. «That is a lot of hazardous materials.» The fire was quickly contained, and flames were completely extinguished by 7:30 p.m. (0330 GMT), but the heated steel kept rescuers at bay for hours, Ausnow said. The victim's identity was not released. Eight people were treated for minor injuries, authorities said.
