Thankfully, no one was hurt or injured in last week's train derailment near Wadena.
Rather than a tragedy, we have instead another reminder of the serious hazards that accompany living in rural Saskatchewan. It is time for a closer examination of exactly how safe rural life is.
The latest threat came last Tuesday morning on the CN tracks some 20 kilometres west of the town when about 26 cars derailed in a 100-car long train. The cars caught fire and produced toxic smoke that billowed several storeys into the air.
"It's huge," Alison Squires, editor of the Wadena News, told CBC News describing what she saw shortly after the derailment. "It's taller than an elevator."
The derailment resulted in about 50 people being evacuated from Clair a kilometre away. Several farms also had to be evacuated and Wadena students were kept inside all day.
Specialized air monitoring equipment from the Environment Ministry was dispatched.
But while the event seemed relatively minor in the light of how big such a disaster might have been, it certainly wasn't minor to those impacted.
"I'm concerned for my animals," Clair-area farmer Jason Evans, told the CBC. "I've got 600 head of buffalo there. It's going over the top of my pastures, its going over the top of my hay field.
"Is that going to affect my hay and my livestock is what I'm kind of interested to find out."
And the rest of us need to be concerned about the potential disaster posed by this derailment and other such dangers in rural living.
For far too long now, little thought has been given to the inherent dangers that accompany living in rural settings. But the reality of farming, the oil industry, construction, forestry or any of a number of rural-based occupation that often involve working with heavy equipment posing serious dangers.
Increased economic activity in the oil and mining sector has meant even more dangers _ including on rural highways and gravel roads where heavy trucks, farm equipment and passenger vehicles can quickly become a deadly mix.
It was no small coincidence that during the same week of the Wadena derailment there were a series of road facilities - all of them involving young men from out-of-province who had come to Saskatchewan to find work.
Add to this cocktail the unpredictability of our winter blizzards, ice or summer storms that make working conditions, travel and simply living that much more dangerous.
Much to the Saskatchewan Party government's credit, it has put special emphasis on smaller companies complying with the province's occupational health and safety laws. Many would suggest this is nothing more than the job of government, but there is little doubt the government's emphasis on compliance has ruffled a few feathers in business.
Also, the province's STARS air ambulance system has somewhat addressed the issue of emergency response to isolated rural people. And while co-existence hasn't been perfect, the air helicopters have not come at the price of replacing needed local ambulance service. (That said, the decline in rural hospitals from 20 years ago makes one wonder whether it is we are really all that much further ahead.)
But even with the tragedy of Lac Megantic, Que., the one area where this government and others have made little progress is the inherent dangers of moving hazardous material by rail.
In rural Saskatchewan, we can mitigate some dangers like farmyard overhead power lines. But as individuals, we can't do much about the dangerous commodities that are hauled through rural areas, villages, towns and smaller cities.
A potential disaster like the Wadena derailment is a good time for us to take stock and press governments for more regulation of the rail industry to mitigate the dangers of moving this material.
The Wadena derailment was just the latest warning.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
