OMAHA, Neb.– A new federal rule finalized Monday aims to ensure that first responders can find out what dangerous chemicals are on a train almost immediately after a derailment so they can respond appropriately.
Too common in past disasters, such as last year fiery derailment in South Norfolk in East Palestine, OhioFirefighters risked their lives extinguishing a fire without knowing how to respond properly. The local fire chief in charge of the response said he was needed 45 minutes to find out exactly what was in the 11 burning tankers on the train, but some firefighters from neighboring departments who came to help said they didn’t know what they were dealing with until two hours after the Feb. 3, 2023 accident.
First responders must know exactly what hazardous materials are on a train so they can look it up in the government’s official guide and ensure they have the right protective equipment and firefighting equipment, said Tristan Brown, deputy administrator of the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration agency that sets the rule.
Knowing which chemical is involved and how much of it is on board also affects the size of an evacuation zone that may be necessary to protect the public.
“There are so many different types of hazardous materials moving across the country on any given day – one in 10 goods traveling through the United States – and each poses unique risks and hazards, especially for the people traveling a fire,” Brown said. “But certainly also for everyone who lives or works in that area.”
The rule was published just one day before the National Transportation Safety Board’s final hearing about the derailment in East Palestine, where they will discuss what exactly caused that crash and recommend steps to prevent similar disasters.
Train crews have long carried lists of their loads in the cabs of their locomotives, but in the midst of the chaos after a derailment, the engineers and conductors, who may have moved their locomotives miles down the track, can’t always be immediately found. .
That’s one reason why the major freight railroads about a decade ago developed an app called AskRail that allows firefighters to quickly look up the details of what each train is carrying. But not every firefighter had the app, and cell phones don’t always have a strong enough signal to function in a disaster.
Regulators want the railroads to continue expanding access to that app, including to 911 centers, so information reaches first responders sooner. The railways have expanded access in the past year. The Association of American Railroads trade group estimates that about 2.3 million first responders now have access to that information as a result of efforts to expand to dispatch centers.
The six largest railroads also make trainload information immediately available through the chemical industry’s hazardous materials hotlines in the U.S. and Canada, known as CHEMTREC and CANUTEC emergency call centers.
But the new federal rule also applies to the hundreds of smaller railroad companies that are not involved in AskRail. Even railroads that now have only one or two employees should have a plan to quickly get the crucial details of their cargo to the local fire department, even if it’s as simple as having the fire chief’s cell phone number on hand. Railroads must also test their plan at least once a year.
“In the event of a hazmat incident, firefighters and first responders arriving on scene need to know what hazardous materials are present so they can protect themselves and their communities,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
It is not clear how this rule could have changed the outcome in East Palestine, but more information could have helped firefighters respond.
The derailment led to a national reckoning railway safety and prompted Congress to propose changes, and regulators like Buttigieg to do so as well Encourage railroads do more to prevent derailments.
The Federal Railroad Administration has issued several advices about different aspects of railway activitiesbut the reforms in Congress have come to a standstill because Republicans wanted to wait for the final NTSB report and the regulators had that alone limited success Making changes.