Emergency management director Bruce Burrell says the cars are not leaking but the bridge is failing and slowly sinking into the river.
“The bridge is continuing to drop as we speak so that distance between the failure point and where the bridge decking is, is starting to open up more,” he said. “So it appears that the bridge is failing.”
Acting fire chief Ken Uzelok said the bridge dropped about two-thirds of a metre in less than two hours Thursday morning.
Burrell says it’s possible the cars are carrying diesel fuel, but he couldn’t confirm that.
“The product involved is a petroleum-based product. It could be diesel or something similar to diesel”
The immediate area around the derailment has been evacuated and officials are making a plan to get the cars off.
Both the Bow and Elbow rivers burst their banks within the city when heavy rain pounded southern regions of Alberta last week.
Police have not said, however, if flooding was responsible for the structural failure.
Canadian Pacific spokesman Ed Greenberg said the train was eastbound when it left the tracks.
“They are all upright,” he said. “There are no leaks reported and no injuries reported as a result of the incident.”
Dozens of police vehicles and fire trucks are on the scene.
Pictures of Calgary train bridge that is failing with loaded rail cars on it. pic.twitter.com/O48kN93lXL
— Jackson Proskow (@JProskowGlobal) June 27, 2013