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Norfolk Southern Railway experts offer free hazardous materials training for firefighters

On the site of Norfolk Southern's rail yard in Raleigh, local firefighters took advantage of a rare opportunity to prepare in the event of a train accident involving hazardous materials.

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By
Rick Armstrong
, Enterprise multimedia journalist

On the site of Norfolk Southern’s rail yard in Raleigh, local firefighters took advantage of a rare opportunity to prepare in the event of a train accident involving hazardous materials.

Operation Awareness and Response offers free training for local firefighters and other agencies.

Raleigh firefighter John Atkins said, "We don’t really have much opportunity to train with rail cars all the time. It’s cool to get to see them put together and have the experts out here to help us out."

Many trains move throughout the state – but this train is rather different. One train car is styled like a school house with a classroom inside. Firefighters received instruction indoors, and hands-on experience outdoors on the specially equipped train cars.

Raleigh Fire Department’s HazMat manager Robert Hand says the training is valuable.

"Train accidents, derailments are very low frequency but very high risk, so we go back to our training. We focus on our tactical objectives and do it safely and as quickly as possible," he said.

HazMat instructor, David Patten, with Norfolk Southern Railway brought firefighters into the drivers seat of the train.

"If you’ve got anything going on in the locomotive, first thing you want to do is hit the emergency fuel shut off," explained Patten.

Patten teaches responders how to take fast action to keep a manageable event from becoming a disaster. Such a crisis occurred 8 years ago in Lynchburg, Virginia, with 13 cars carrying crude oil jumping the tracks and bursting into flames; thankfully with no injuries.

It’s training most firefighters may never need to call upon.

"Could be a once in a lifetime thing that occurs, but it still has the potential of occurring so we want to make sure they are prepared," said Patten.

Norfolk Southern Railway’s special train travels throughout the system’s 22 state network across eastern United States.

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