Following the February 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, concerns over the safety of freight transport on trains have become a top public concern.
More recently, a freight train carrying corn syrup, initially reported as a hazardous substance, derailed last Wednesday in Mojave County near the California border.
East Valley officials say a task force of first responders is being trained to handle emergencies that may arise in the area.
“From a Valley perspective, we are very well prepared to deal with all kinds of hazardous material spills, whether rail, industrial or road. ,” said Mesa City, Alderman Summers, who served the Phoenix Fire Department for 27 years.
A similar incident occurred locally in 2020, when a broken rail on the Tempe Town Lake Bridge derailed a train and set it on fire.
Somers called the Tempe wreck the “greatest risk” to the community, largely because it was a flammable chemical spill and its proximity to downtown the city.
The Union Pacific Railroad tracks also pass through Gilbert, including near the often-congested Heritage District, so the town’s fire and rescue services include Fire Station No. 5.
“The team has support equipment to carry all the equipment needed to mitigate hazardous materials incidents,” said Fire Chief Rob Duggan. “The Mesa and Chandler Fire Departments also have hazmat response teams.In large incidents, these teams support each other to mitigate incidents.”
All hazardous materials technicians receive basic level rail vehicle emergency training in their first 200 hour class, while advanced training is provided at Gilbert.
For the past two years, the department has partnered with Union Pacific to provide an advanced “tank truck specialist” certification to all firefighters in the Valley, Duggan said.
Union Pacific will donate tank railcars to the Gilbert Public Safety Training Facility in 2021. It is used to train first responders in rail vehicle emergencies.
“This tank car was involved in the 2020 Tempe derailment and is a particular style of rail vehicle that transports approximately 70 percent of the hazardous materials on the rail system,” Duggan said. “Union Pacific provided a variety of props for the Gilbert Public Safety Training Facility.”
Duggan added that his department is constantly updating and adding new equipment to the HazMat trucks to better handle rail vehicle emergencies.
At the state level, the Arizona Corporation’s Railroad Safety Administration closely monitors public railroad and highway crossings under its jurisdiction, investigating train derailments and other accidents.
A spokeswoman said the safety department conducts annual inspections of more than 3,000 miles of trucks and makes unannounced “worker protection” visits.
Two freighters serve Arizona, BNSF and Union Pacific, but it’s the latter that traverses the entire valley from Queen Creek to Buckeye as it travels the width of Arizona from Yuma to San Simon.
Union Pacific carries commodities to and from the Valley, including metal minerals, sulfur, building materials, and grains such as wheat and flour.
Union Pacific reports a 13% increase in rail vehicles leaving Arizona from 2017 to 2021, spending $301 million on Arizona’s infrastructure, including tracks, structures and facilities, over the same period. spent.
Union Pacific spokeswoman Robynn Tysver said the company uses a number of technologies to monitor railcars and tracks, including GPS, specialized sensors and, in some areas, Positive Train Control.
This sophisticated system is designed to automatically stop trains before certain incidents occur, such as trains colliding with each other or derailing due to excessive speed or movement due to track switch misalignment.
“This commitment to providing a secure and efficient network allows Union Pacific to become a valuable resource to attract new businesses and industries,” said Tysver.
Another useful tool is the AskRail app, launched in 2014. This gives more than 25,000 first responders nationwide instant access to accurate and timely data on the types of hazardous materials carried by rail vehicles so they can make informed decisions about how to respond. increase. Emergency.
This app is the result of a collaborative effort between the emergency response community and all Class I railroads in North America.
This app uses a simple vehicle ID lookup to check if any vehicle in a train is carrying dangerous goods.
From there, users can view full train content and emergency contact information for all Class I rail, Amtrak, and available short-haul routes.
For security reasons, the AskRail App’s restricted functionality may only be downloaded and used by those who are sponsored by one of the Class I Freight Railroads or who have undergone Railroad Emergency Training through the Colorado Security and Emergency Response Training Center. For qualified emergency responders only.
In addition, rail companies can provide apps to known emergency responders on their route.
Federal law requires common carriers, including Union Pacific, to ship chemicals and other hazardous materials used by Americans on a daily basis, such as fertilizers, crude oil, and chlorine, accounting for approximately 20% of the chemicals used in the United States. is obliged to transport the
According to the American Railroad Association, in 2021 freight trains carried 2.2 million truckloads of plastics, fertilizers and other chemicals.
Ethanol is the largest chemical transported by U.S. railroads, according to industry groups, and more than half of all railroad chemical vehicles carry a variety of industrial chemicals, including soda ash, caustic soda, urea, sulfuric acid, and anhydrous ammonia. contained. Plastic materials and synthetic resins make up nearly a quarter of his railroad chemical vehicles, with pesticides making up most of the rest.
“Union Pacific shares the same goal as our customers and communities: to deliver all tank cars safely. It’s important to remember.”
Union Pacific’s dangerous goods inspection team inspects about 5,000 tanker trucks each year, auditing everything from tanker truck accessories and vehicle markings to safety equipment, Tysvers said. says.
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“They also work with contractors, customers and government regulators to investigate, report and correct findings,” she added.
Like other rail companies, Union Pacific works with community emergency response teams to implement and share best practices, co-educate team members, and ensure that emergency response plans are effective and that all employees We hold an annual training to ensure that our employees comply.
Mesa Fire’s Special Ops Capt. Mike Thomas recently attended one of the annual trainings held at the Gilbert Public Safety and Training Center.
Training includes both classroom learning and hands-on learning delivered by Union Pacific. Another training block was provided by the National Guard’s Hazardous Materials Unit in early March, including education and training on natural gas leaks, radiological emergencies, and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear accidents.
“One of the biggest things for me, and my position as HazMat’s program manager, is that we’re building collaborative relationships and things like that with Union Pacific,” said Thomas.
If an incident occurs and Thomas is the first to arrive on the scene, he will immediately call the Union Pacific program manager to get Mesa fire and medical updates and information needed to deal with the emergency. said to be able to provide
“But the engineer will go ahead and throw a mayday and show there is a problem, so he probably already knows the problem,” says Thomas.
Whether it’s regional readiness training with multiple agencies across the Valley or large-scale incident reviews of past incidents such as the Tempe Town Lake derailment, Thomas said the department will continue to support these partnerships. He said he is using it to get the best results when responding. Incident.
“Because the Mesa fire station doesn’t just show up for railcar accidents, white powder coals and natural gas leaks,” says Thomas. “This is a collaborative effort across the region.”
