On Saturday, March 24 the Oakwood Volunteer Fire Department brought in many other volunteers along with leaders and officials from around the region to train for the event that no one wants to see.
A train derailment or crash is a massive event that could take the lives of many people, contaminate the area, or possibly cause huge fires from explosions and chemical spills, forcing evacuations.
The event was coordinated by Ed Bohn of the Paulding County Emergency Management Agency. Mr. Bohn invited experts from Norfolk and Southern Railroad, the state EMA and other County EMA’s from Northwest Ohio for the sole purpose of increasing the abilities of the OVFD volunteers. The event coordinated efforts between the Sheriffs’ Office, Ohio State Patrol, ODOT, volunteer firemen, EMA and other resources in emergency situations.
The morning started off with explaining that everybody needed to know the weather and that there had been an event at the railroad tracks along State Road 613.
The Norfolk and Southern official said that many times they do not know that there has been a derailment until they start getting calls from the people at the call center.
After the first 911 calls start coming in, the police chief was probably the first on the scene broad and then by the Fire Chief in the EMS.
As the events unfolded and information was recovered it was found that there was a chemical spill, possibly large, in the scenario. There was a section in this nearly one mile long train where about 18 of the cars derailed. Assessing an emergency situation such as a train derailing would be very difficult if there were not roads nearby, and some places in Paulding County are exactly like that. If the fields are muddy they may not have good access to them. There is certainly more technology than there was years ago, but the legal loops to jump through can be difficult for small towns to have access to things such as drones that could be a huge timesaver versus feet on the ground. These resources are coming quickly though and there are surrounding counties that do you have them available for Paulding to use. Is there that much time in a critical situation of life or death to have one brought over?
Once the workers understood the gravity of the situation, the firefighters pulled out their HAZMAT books and found which chemicals were extremely flammable, toxic or environmentally dangerous based upon the plaques they are put on each of the railroad cars.
The first thing that the emergency people look for are injured people. After that, it is essential to contain the situation and chemicals and to make it safe for the railroad people to clean up and work. ODOT will be looking to hear from the state patrol on what roads should be rerouted, avoiding the situation. They will then notify the Sheriffs’ office and State Patrol to take care of blocking roads. Fire Chief, Jim Varner, was in attendance leading up the “team”. He set in place the media coordinator of which the West Bend News and Crescent News were there in part for the simulation.
In the end, the Oakwood Fire Department successfully completed the tabletop exercise and were then evaluated by experts to see what could have been done better and what they did exactly right.
Paulding County LEPC appreciates the following fo their help and participating: the players and participants for taking part in the HAZ-MAT Exercise; the Evaluators and Facilitator for taking the time to be in Paulding County; Norfolk and Southern Railroad for their participation and insight in a derailment response; the Ohio EMA for their help and evolutions at the tabletop exercise.
