Local fire fighters train for railway emergencies

On Wednesday, they practiced two scenario’s, train car fire suppression, and locomotive extrication.

The training comes annually in conjunction with CP Rail and Iron Horse.

“We’ll learn about the crude cars and actually learn about how to do the cooling of the cars and how to do fire suppression on the cars and stuff like that,” says Jason Labash, acting captain of the Medicine Hat Fire Service.

“It’s really situational,” says Dustin Ritter, hazardous materials officer with CP Rail. “It’s something no one really wants to have happen but it’s always good to be prepared so if that does happen everyone’s up to speed on their training and expectations.”

The training comes at a fitting time, just two weeks after a train derailed and caught fire in the community of Irvine.

A chemical spill prompted an evacuation of the entire Hamlet, affecting roughly 200 people.

The derailment is entirely cleaned up now, and trains are running as normal.

“Everything was done right, things were done, appropriate people were called in to assist in the situation, great information gathering on their part, it went very good,” says Kelly Meyer, Cypress County fire chief.

According to Ritter, the response to the incident in Irvine couldn’t have gone more smoothly.

“Local response by the local agencies, fire departments was exceptional, the fire chief and his personnel did a fantastic job,” he says. “Then working in conjunction with our groups, it just went very very well.”

He says that’s because railway emergency situations are trained for every year by local agencies, handling chemicals, communications, and Wednesday’s session focusing on locomotive extrication.

“Were going to get into a rail car, a locomotive, and were going to find a guy who’s had a medical emergency,” says Labash. “We’re not going to put the locomotive on its side, we’re going to get in there and get a guy who’s maybe having and heart condition, maybe he just broke his leg, somethings going on where we can’t get him out the front door.”

Aiming to make sure first responders are more than ready to handle any situation thrown their way.

“It gives a piece of mind to the public that you have qualified, trained people responding to incidents and we can deal with them,” says Meyer.

If anything like the Irvine derailment happens again.

“You don’t need it very often but when you do you’re glad you have it,” says Labash.

by Jessie Weisner

Local fire fighters train for railway emergencies

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