July 1, 2025 – Hartford, WI – At approximately 9:20 a.m. on June 30, 2025, Hartford Fire & Rescue responded to the railroad track crossing at Independence Avenue, North of Highway 60, for the report of a train derailment.
Washington County Sheriff’s Office dispatch advised that there were reports of several injured people. The first arriving command vehicle, along with Hartford police officers, found a Wisconsin & Southern train that had derailed from the tracks just West of Independence Avenue in the industrial park, and occurred across the border of Dodge and Washington Counties.
Three Hartford Ambulances were utilized to quickly treat and transport three injured people, who were the conductor and engineers of the train. While fire crews from Hartford Fire & Rescue were arriving on scene, further mutual aid was requested utilizing the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) for a Hazardous Materials incident, as the injured employees indicated that the diesel tanks on at least one of the locomotive engines were damaged and actively leaking diesel fuel onto the ground.
Initial Hartford fire crews worked quickly to stop the diesel fuel leak from spreading towards a nearby waterway, and to begin collecting the fuel in controlled areas around the tracks. The train consisted of approximately three locomotive engines and 55 train cars, of which three engines and 19 cars had derailed. Also of concern was a tank car hauling nitrous oxide that suffered exterior damage but remained intact enough not to leak its contents.
After mutual aid crews arrived on scene, further mitigation efforts were taken to pump the standing spilled diesel fuel into containers to limit the damage to the surrounding area. Diesel fuel was also removed from the damaged tanks to ensure that no further leaks would occur while working on scene of the incident.
EMS provided rehabilitation efforts to the firefighters, which was especially important to keep the working firefighters and hazardous materials members healthy due to the high outdoor temperature and humidity level.
No fire, rescue, or hazardous materials personnel were injured during this incident. Due to the efforts of all those on scene, no local businesses or occupants from the surrounding area were displaced.
A special thank you to Stack Equipment located on Constitution Avenue for allowing our operations to be based out of their parking lot, and for allowing fire and rescue personnel to use their building and bathrooms during the incident, and to Laufer Trucking for quickly delivering and providing bulk storage totes to store the leaking diesel fuel in. Several thousand gallons of diesel fuel were estimated to have leaked from the locomotive train engine’s tanks.
Assistance was provided by: Hartford Police Department, Hartford Department of Public Works, Wisconsin DNR, Washington County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch, Washington County Emergency Management, Dodge County Emergency Management, Wisconsin & Southern General Management, and Clean Harbors Environmental Services. Mutual aid assistance was provided through MABAS by: St Lawrence Fire Company, Lifestar Ambulance, Slinger Fire Department, Richfield Fire Department, Jackson Fire Department, Allenton Fire Department, Boltonville Fire Department, and West Bend Fire Department.
Hartford Fire and Rescue, along with the assistance of several of the mutual aid departments, also responded to three other EMS-related and one other fire-related 911 incidents during this same time frame.
Wisconsin & Southern railroad representatives were still conducting an investigation into the cause of the derailment at the time of this release, who can be reached via email at:
media@watco.comAll departments were released from the scene and returned to their stations at approximately 2 p.m.
Clean Harbors and WATCO staff remained on scene to clean up the remaining spill and begin working on removing the derailed train, which is estimated to take several days to complete, along with the associated track repair.
Tony Burgard
Fire & Rescue Chief
(262) 673-8291
Hartford Fire & Rescue
111 W. Wisconsin Street
Hartford, WI 53027
June 30, 2025 – Hartford, WI – UPDATE- There’s a train derailment on Hartford’s west side near Independence Avenue and Innovation Way. The initial call came in just before 10 a.m.
Mutual aide has been requested from Slinger FD, St. Lawrence, Richfield, West Bend, Ashippun, and Allenton.
Life Star West Bend Ambulance and level 3 HAZMAT response team have been paged which requires all members to be there.
Photos courtesy Will Lacharite
Early word is the derailment involves diesel fuel and some oxides.
This is a working story and more information will be posted when details are available.
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