If an engine needs to remain ON then some train personell MUST remain behind?
The ignorance of the fire department was trumped by the lack of RR personell on hand.
I live across the street from a set of railroad tracks that feed a power plant about a mile north of me. They park their engines there all the time at an idle and the crew jumps into a couple of cars waiting for them and leave, sometimes for an entire weekend.
The tracks are pretty flat but in really doesn’t take much of a grade, certainly enough to not be able to tell by eye, to get them moving I believe.
What a tragedy ... so much human error, even though everyone seems to have followed their own protocol.
Something very strange about this incident. Crude oil isn’t all that flammable. Burns like hell once it is started, but needs a real boost to get it going.