On the heels of the sixth train derailment in the Chattanooga area this year, 31 local firefighters will train at a national center in Colorado on how to handle emergencies involving railroad cars.
The federally funded training gives firefighters a week of classroom instruction and drills on an 80-car rail yard near the Pueblo, Colo., Emergency Response Training Center.
Though area train accidents recorded so far this year have not resulted in major chemical spills or large-scale evacuations, both firefighters and emergency workers prepare for such scenarios.
Assistant Chief Dan Hague and Capt. Phil Hyman with the Chattanooga Fire Department have attended training at the center, and they said the hands-on drills helped them learn the complexities of valve systems, which must be shut down after an accident.
With a house fire, two scenarios usually occur, Capt. Hyman said.
“We put the fire out or the house will fall down,” he said, adding that either scenario usually ends quickly.
But with a rail accident, the tasks involved – checking for hazardous chemicals, responding and deciding whether to order an evacuation – can mean a 24-hour stay at the scene, Capt. Hyman said.
Most of the work surrounding a railroad car accident involves standard hazardous materials response, for which the department has 245 trained technicians. The particulars of working with the train come down to calls made on the scene by incident commanders.
Three Chattanooga firefighters have that training, officials said.
The most critical piece of information for the commander is what chemical firefighters are handling.
“You can put folks in the wrong kind of suit,” Chief Hague said. “We contact the train crew, get a list of the train cars, list of the chemicals and where in the train the incident is.”
In 2007, there were five train accidents in Hamilton County, nine in 2008 and 16 in 2009, records show. A derailment on July 16 was the sixth in the Chattanooga area this year and at least the eighth train accident in 2010.
If an evacuation is needed, the Hamilton County Emergency Management Agency alerts residents with a system that can call all landlines on a predesignated map area, said Bill Tittle, agency chief.
Media alerts and calls to cell phones for those who’ve registered with the agency also will give instructions on whether to leave the area or stay in place, he said.