FEC handling investigation after crews pick up derailed train cars in Jensen Beach

JENSEN BEACH — After part of a freight train derailed and shook up a Jensen Beach neighborhood Thursday evening, workers were getting the cars back on the tracks in sweltering afternoon heat Friday.

Five train cars toppled off the tracks and three derailed but remained standing, Martin County Fire Rescue District Chief Joshua Shell said.

It derailed near Northeast Clarissa Street and Northeast Tropical Way around 4:50 p.m. Thursday.

No one was injured and no structures were damaged as a result, said District Chief Joseph Lobosco with Martin County Fire Rescue.

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The train is part of the Florida East Coast Railway Company. FEC crews were still picking up the cars laying around the railroad and clearing debris in the area Friday afternoon.

They used machinery to lift the train cars back onto the tracks at 12:30 p.m. But the majority of workers appeared to halt the cleanup as rain and lightning passed over the tracks.

Residents said they could hear the train derail from across the neighborhood Thursday. 

"You could hear it, It was so loud, the noise, we hear it all the way down the other side by the road," said Julio Rios, who lives in Jensen Beach near where the train derailed. "Then everybody started coming, people from all over here."

Lobosco said the investigation into what happened to make the train derail was handed over to FEC. A Martin County Sheriff's Office spokesperson said they're not involved in the investigation.

A spokesperson with the National Transportation Safety Board said the agency is not investigating the incident.

Sheriff's officials said the train was carrying limestone, but the derailed cars were empty. They said there were no concerns about hazardous materials.

Shell said there was no medical or fire emergency.

Johanna Appleton, who lives next to the tracks in Jensen Beach said she heard loud metallic squeaking and a cloud of smoke when the train derailed Thursday.

Appleton said her neighbor told her the house was shaking so bad she thought a tree would fall over.

The train's abrupt stop delayed traffic at the Jensen Beach Boulevard round-about Thursday evening as FEC reconnected parts of the train and moved it away. Law enforcement officials closed the area to traffic for a while.

The trains were stopped but it wasn't blocking the intersection, said Lucie McGuire, of Port St. Lucie, who was walking through downtown Jensen Beach. 

"We came, walked over the tracks and went to have dinner and then we came back and it was stopped over the tracks," she said.

Mauricio La Plante is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm focusing on Martin County. Follow him on Twitter @mslaplantenews or email him at Mauricio.LaPlante@tcpalm.com.