No injuries reported in railway bridge collapse outside Fort Frances, Ont., officals say

No injuries have been reported after a train bridge collapsed east of Fort Frances, Ont., on Wednesday, and no trains were involved in the incident, town officials said.

The cause of the collapse is still under investigation, according to the Transportation Safety Board.

"TSB was notified at 17:55 local time on Wednesday that a railroad bridge collapsed at mileage 84 of the Canadian National Fort Frances Subdivision," TSB Media Relations Coordinator Hugo Fontaine said in an email.

"We have not deployed investigators to the scene," Fontaine said. 

Carol Boivin, who, along with her husband, Al, operates the Rainy Lake Boat Taxi, which ferries tourists and their belongings to camps and cottages on the lake, said she heard the bridge fall.

"There was a train that went by ... and then shortly after, I heard this big bang," said Boivin, who lives less than half a kilometre from the bridge and can see it from her home.

"So we took a boat ride over and we seen it and, yeah, it was down. ... Like the cement — I'm not sure what they call it. There's this cement piece that was the weight for it to go up and down — had collapsed and the bridge fell."

The collapsed bridge prevents the company from reaching the north arm of Rainy Lake with the barge it uses to transport building materials and other large items, Al Boivin said. 

"It'll be a loss of ... quite a bit of my business," he said. "I could even be done for the season, as far as that goes — going to the north arm."

He doesn't yet know how long it may take before the route is passable again by larger boats, he added. 

The Town of Fort Frances notified the public about the collapse Wednesday afternoon, urging people to avoid the  area known as the Five Mile Bridge.

"The town of Fort Frances is currently monitoring the situation and is prepared to activate the Emergency Control Group if necessary," it wrote in a statement Wednesday on the town's Facebook page.  "We are in contact with CN and are awaiting update." 

Ontario Provincial Police also urged boaters to avoid the area as the bridge is too low to pass under.

The train bridge is located at the causeway east of Fort Frances and Couchiching First Nation.