Posted on 03/23/2015 2:00:08 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
Volunteers at the Galena, Illinois, fire department were hosing down the smoldering wreck of a derailed BNSF oil train on March 5 when a fire suddenly flared beyond their control.
"They dropped the hoses and got out" when the flames started rising, said Charles Pedersen, emergency manager for Jo Daviess County, a rural area near the Iowa border which includes Galena. "Ten more minutes and we would have lost them all."
No one was hurt in the fire, which burned for days, fed by oil leaking from the ruptured tank cars. But an increase in explosive accidents in North America this year highlights the risks that thousands of rural fire departments face as shipments of oil by rail grow and regulators call for improved train car standards.
Nearly two years after a crude oil train derailed, exploded and killed 47 people in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in 2013, there are no uniform U.S. standards for oil train safety procedures, and training varies widely across the country, according to interviews with firefighters and experts in oil train derailments and training.
About 2,500 fire departments are adjacent to rail lines transporting oil in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa alone, according to figures provided by the Department of Transportation, but no nationwide statistics exist. The DOT does not know which of these fire departments are in need of training, a spokesman said.
The scenario concerns experts who say more needs to be done for sparsely equipped, rural, mostly volunteer-run fire departments to prepare as oil train accidents increase. Already this year, four oil trains have derailed and exploded in North America, double last year's tally.
No deaths have occurred as a result of U.S. derailments. Oil trains have been a consistent feature on U.S. rails only since 2009.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Might be safer if it was going through a PIPELINE.
30 cars of a coal train derailed in Colorado over the weekend. I wonder what they will say the cause was? Radical Islamist peace troops?
Oil has been moved on rail for decades. But in recent years, the volume has greatly climbed.
locals even the professionals do not really know how to fight fuel fires. At The refining company my dad worked at the chief of the fire department (Joe Rizzo) broke his leg trying to avoid a flare up at the gulf plan years back. One friend of my dads was killed in that fire. the refining companies all had their own first companies.
Personal note: I just waited about ten minutes in my town for one of these BNSF trains to pass, all tank cars...wondering if it was crude. The line comes directly from the ports at Newark. Isn’t this Warren Buffets rail line?
And in this news today.... THERE WERE NO PIPELINE LEAKS, FIRES OR EXPLOSIONS.
Hundreds of thousands of tank car equivalent barrels of oil and other products were moved all over the nation without one single incident.
During WWII, a large number of trains started derailing. The US government said it was NOT sabotage, and refused to put guards over all train bridges.
Nothing to see here! Move along!
Elitism and campaign donations carry some weight...?
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