Hazardous Cargoes Make Rail Yards Prime Objects for Emergency Plans
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Many aspects of preplanning are discussed in training and during drills in the fire service. One area that has not been touched upon is railroad switch-yards, large or small, that dot our nation’s rail system.
Emergency response officials are aware of the vast amounts of hazardous materials and ordinary combustibles transported by rail. How many, however, have considered the handling of these commodities while they are temporarily staying in the local railroad yard?
Past experience has indicated that serious incidents can occur. Among the more serious incidents which have occurred in railroad terminals are those in the accompanying table.
Preplanning of yards and terminals can be accomplished only by meeting with the railroad terminal officials and developing an adequate emergency plan.
Yardmaster’s importance
At a rail yard, the key individual is the yardmaster. He is in charge of the railroad switching operations and will normally be the initial emergency coordinator until relieved of duties by a higher railroad official. The yardmaster usually has experience as a switchman and is well acquainted with the yard.
He also has access to the yard communications network, directs all switching movements, and controls trains entering and leaving the terminal. He is a key individual in the planning due to his knowledge, access to information and material, and the fact that he will inititate the emergency plan if an incident occurs.
In some cases, a railroad terminal will be made up of more than one yard. These may be adjacent to each other, either side by side or end to end, or in some cases, separated by several miles in a metropolitan area.
In the case of a large terminal with more than one yard, the hierarchy of management would proceed up from the yardmaster to a general yardmaster and/or terminal manager, who supervises the yardmasters. There is then a terminal trainmaster, who is responsible for the terminal operating personnel and their activities, and finally the terminal superintendent, who is responsible for the overall operation of the terminal.
The degree to which these men are involved in the planning will depend on local circumstances, but in many cases they will be the railroad authority to endorse the effort, coordinate railroad personnel’s involvement, approve the final plan, and issue the order for its adoption and use.
Selection of routes
The preplanning must start with establishing fire department response routing to and into the yard. Maps or aerial photographs should be obtained which clearly denote roadways in the yard and illustrate all key locations. This should indicate access routes, evacuation lanes, roadways, major obstructions, meeting points, pertinent structures, possible command post and staging area locations, yardmaster’s office, water supplies, drainage systems, isolation tracks, fuel and hazardous material storage areas, and cutoff controls. All information, of course, will have to be kept current with construction and other changes in the yard.
An essential point in response planning is the selection of several locations to which apparatus should respond and meet railroad personnel who will direct them to the incident. Several meeting points may be necessary because of the size of a yard, the possibility of incidents at different locations, the need to reach both sides of an incident, or the need to provide for alternate access routes to the yard. Fire service personnel should recommend additional fire lanes or roads, if necessary, to obtain adequate access to high-potential areas.
Fire department dispatchers may have to direct companies to specific meeting points as circumstances vary with the incident. Companies should respond to assigned meeting points unless directed elsewhere. Railroad employees should be assigned to each meeting area.
Consider obstructions
It may be necessary to develop alternative response routes because of blockage of grade crossings or yard roadways by long trains. Detail any obstructions to response or operations, such as fences, ditches, power lines and elevated or below-grade trackage. He sure to cover both the front and back of the yard. This may require the response of more than one fire department.
Don’t overlook main line tracks which may have higher speed, through-trains moving on them, fire hydrants, or the dual usage of routes for both response and escape. If possible, escape routes should be different from response routes. When laying out response routes within a yard, a description of the basic yard operations should be obtained.
An early consideration during an emergency will be the establishment of a command post and identification of the products in the cars involved. Identification of the products can often be aided by locating the command post in the yardmaster’s office. This office is ideal because it has the capability of identifying rail cars, their contents, and their locations in the yard. It also has waybills and possibly a computer terminal to obtain product identification. Remember that in a yard, switch crews may not have the papers to assist in lading identification.
Good view of yard
An additional advantage of using the yardmaster’s office for the command post in many terminals is that it is elevated and provides an excellent vantage point for viewing much of the yard. Also, the yardmaster’s office has direct access to the interyard communication system, including the yard speaker system, contact with switch engines, the switchmen’s walkie-talkies, and other key railroad personnel.
Photo by C. J. Wright
The possibility of a command post in other than the yardmaster’s office must be included in the planning. In all cases, the command post should not be too close or too remote from the incident, will need plenty of working room, and adequate communications. The preplan must be sure to include procedures for alerting all participants of the location of the command post.
Communications are vital in a rail yard. The incident commander and command post must be able to work closely with railroad personnel. It will be necessary to determine what cars are on adjacent tracks, to have locomotives drop the cars they are moving on a remote track and stand by to clear tracks adjacent to the emergency or to remove hazardous materials. Movement of cars may be necessary for access or safety.
In the event of an incident, an announcement should be made over both channels of the railroad communication system that units working the incident should switch to a single channel and hold the channel open for emergency operations. Communications are also necessary to control the movement of trains into and through the yard. The communication problem enlarges when the yard serves more than one railroad.
Emergency numbers
Communications preplanning includes having the fire department acquire the emergency phone numbers that will be needed during an incident in a yard. The fire department also should know how to contact railroad officials at home after business hours? Likewise, railroad personnel should learn how to contact emergency response forces and technical assistance and provide them with helpful information that the railroad dispatcher has available.
It must be stressed that railroad personnel should record the time the incident occurred and when flame impingement on tank cars began, as well as the time the fire department was notified and when apparatus arrived. These times should be reported to the incident commander since they can be critical in making decisions involving hazardous materials. The railroad should determine who will notify the fire department and when and how the public will be informed or warned. Because of the importance of the decision to evacuate the surrounding area and the way these people will be told to leave, the determination of who will be involved in the decision-making must be detailed.
A staging area of adequate size with lighting should be selected for additional apparatus and supplies. The area should not only be accessible to units moving into the rail yard, but it also should have direct routes to most of the yard.
The yard should be surveyed for equipment that will be useful during the incident. This will include any fire protection within the yard. Hydrants may be widely spaced or totally lacking. Since in many cases only small mains exist, fire flow tests should be run.
The possibility of filling any available tank cars and using them as a water supply source in the yard should be checked. The procedure for filling and withdrawing water from these cars must be established. Bottom outlet cars will have to be used and proper adapters to fire department threads must be available. Any alternative water sources should be noted.
Through coordination with terminal officials, an isolation track, or tracks, should be designated for the safe deposition of problem cars. Consider a remote area that is also accessible by roadway. Also evaluate the exposures, including drainage, and the availability of water.
Small equipment, such as non-sparking tools that may be required to stop a leak, should be located. The availability of pickup trucks, vehicles equipped to run on rails, and switch engines to assist in moving hose lines, equipment and personnel will be important. Flat cars, gondolas, cranes or derricks may also be necessary and must be included in the list of resources. Also, the availability of operators and how they are contacted for an emergency must be outlined in the planning.
Railroad personnel
The mechanical department of the railroad should be considered as a resource. They have car men and diesel mechanics available. These personnel can be helpful in removing ignition sources throughout the yard, which could include mechanical refrigerator cars, fusees, switch lamps, and possible alcohol heater cars, or any other mechanical equipment that could add to the problems.
All possible problems should be foreseen, such as storage areas within the yard containing fuel, fusees, torpedoes, or other materials which could become involved or exposed. Shops where paint is stored or used and acetylene and oxygen cylinders should be noted. The problem of keying a radio microphone for a transmission igniting a vapor leak cannot be overlooked, along with electrical and fuel supply cutoffs for the yard.
The movement of locomotives may also have to be restricted, including those on main lines passing through the yard, to eliminate possible ignition of vapors. Knowledge of prevailing winds may be important to vapor cloud dispersion and placement of emergency response apparatus. Closing of valves or the use of non-sparking tools may have to be accomplished under the cover of water fog since there could be a buildup of static electricity that could jump to a grounded object. Fire service personnel should obtain basic familiarization with locomotives and tank cars and their valving arrangements.
The planning must include not only a fire, but also a liquid or gas leak that could be flammable, corrosive, toxic, or a combination of these. Considerations must include drainage, the location of discharges, what they expose, any adjacent bodies of surface water, and how spills will be controlled or gas leaks dispersed. The role of environmental agencies cannot be overlooked. It is necessary to determine the sources of materials to dike, inhibit, neutralize, or absorb large quantity liquid spills.
Any special fire department operations must be outlined and standard operating procedures must be developed to carry them out. This may include the assignment of additional or special equipment on the first alarm, special water supply operations, the requirement for unusual hose layouts, fire fighting operations coordinated with railroad equipment, protection of adjacent exposures, tactics for contingencies, and unusual or massive evacuations.
In all cases, specific problems will have to be correlated with the community disaster plan and those agencies involved during a large-scale incident. The Finalized plan should be distributed to all agencies involved and periodically reviewed for updating.
Training necessary
Once the planning has been completed, special training should be given emergency response personnel so they are familiar with the plan, the rail yard and the operations of the railroad. They should endeavor to learn the appropriate terminology so they can converse with those railroad personnel they will work with. Any special operational procedures will need to be practiced with adequate drills.
The preplanning for a rail yard can become more complicated if there are adjacent yards or more than one railroad using a yard. This will require additional options, notification, and communications. Stopping of trains and yard movements become more difficult as do access and evacuation. In some instances, a common plan may be sufficient. However, similar individual plans, or completely different ones, may be necessary for each yard or railroad.
Because of the unique considerations at a railroad yard, planning is vital. It should include local input and involvement by appropriate yard officials so that all areas are covered. Proper planning will assure a coordinated effort carried out in a cooperative, efficient manner should an incident occur.
The author would like to acknowledge the encouragement and assistance of R. G. Kuhlmann, manager, fire prevention and hazardous materials, of Burlington Northern in the preparation of this article.
