News Manager
Milforums News Bot
By Karl Plume, P.J. Huffstutter and Ernest Scheyder (Reuters) - A blinding flash of orange light jarred Weyauwega residents awake before dawn on March 4, 1996. An 81-car freight train had been barreling toward the farm town in central Wisconsin when it jumped a broken rail. The train's propane and petroleum cargo had caught fire and exploded. Gerald Poltrock II, a rookie local police officer, thought it was a prank when the dispatcher called to say the city "blew up." It was no joke. When he arrived at the Mill Street railroad crossing, Poltrock recalled, the scene was "mass chaos. ...More...