Last month, two train cars derailed and overturned in a Georgia rail yard, one spilling its cargo of styrene into a nearby dike. Styrene is a flammable liquid used in the production of plastics. The leak occurred through a valve on top of the overturned car.

In situations like this, the role of the fire department would be to assess the situation, determine if any evacuations were necessary, and control the flow of the leaking product into the environment by attempting to secure the valve and using natural or other diking material on the ground.

The product remaining in the overturned rail car would need to be moved into another car or container, and the spilled product would need to be cleaned up. This would be the responsibility of the cleanup contractor brought in by the railroad, not the fire department hazmat team. The department would work with the railroad, the cleanup contractor and possibly the manufacturer to ensure the work is being done in a safe manner that would not create additional hazards to the community. On-scene air and ground monitoring also would be necessary. These functions would need to be handled through the local or state government agency responsible for environmental protection.

This was a comparatively small incident with the effect on the community limited to the immediate vicinity, yet it still involved significant interaction between the public safety agencies and the private sector. Consider the broader impact if the incident occurred near a public thoroughfare. The ability to quickly resolve the incident would rely heavily on government and industry working together to return the area to normal. It can be improved only if relationships have been already established, and that involves joint training and planning.

Outside resources

Many fire departments have learned that early industry involvement in training, planning and response pays huge, long-term benefits. The larger chemical producers, carriers and response contractors have more knowledge and expertise than fire department hazmat teams about how chemical products behave in the field and how to handle them.

So how do you access this expertise? Aside from contacting a facility in your community, here are some good sources.

Chemical Transportation Emergency Center. This is probably the most widely recognized 24-hour resource for hazmat transportation emergencies, including medical emergencies involving chemicals. CHEMTREC is a service of the American Chemistry Council that provides technical information and assistance to any caller at no charge. While the operators aren't chemists themselves, they are very knowledgeable at the hazmat-technician level. They can put callers in contact with someone who has the needed expertise, and they provide technical data from a fairly extensive library of current Material Safety Data Sheets and other resources.

CHEMTREC maintains a list of industry- and product-specific mutual aid networks, which usually involve groups of companies that manufacture a common chemical product, to ensure expertise is always available regardless of the manufacturer.

Because of CHEMTREC's affiliation with the chemical and transportation industries, they also can help fire departments contact companies for training and planning purposes. Remember, you don't have wait for an emergency to access a chemical shipper or carrier. To find out more, go to www.chemtrec.com.

Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response. TRANSCAER is the local link to the resources of the industry when it comes to transportation emergency response planning and training. It's a cooperative effort among the hazmat transportation industry, chemical producers and emergency cleanup contractors to help communities and emergency responders better prepare for hazmat transportation incidents. TRANSCAER provides training, emergency room planning and other assistance through a network of state and regional coordinators. Some of the successful training programs include the national Whistle Stop Tours, which bring specialized training classes, training rail cars and tank trucks, and emergency response equipment to communities along a designated route. To find out more, visit www.transcaer.org.

Chlorine Emergency Response Program. This program sponsored by the Chlorine Institute involves companies that manufacture and transport chlorine-related products. CHLOREP maintains a network that is activated through CHEMTREC and consists of response teams that can be quickly deployed to assist with a chlorine emergency. They sponsor training seminars, produce training materials, and provide emergency response groups with technical assistance and expertise. For more information, visit www.cl2.com/chlorep/index.html.

Training options

A wide range of programs also are available from individual companies, from classroom sessions on specific chemical products to video programs to hands-on responder training. Many companies have collaborated with state and regional fire training academies and universities by providing props, training materials and other resources.

One of most well-known facilities is the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colo. This facility is operated by the rail industry and serves as the primary hands-on transportation emergency response training school for chemical and petroleum producers, railroads and emergency response contractors. While this facility uses full-sized props, they don't use actual chemical products for leaks. Many companies will make available student slots and pay tuition costs for fire department members.

With all that industry can provide, there is one area where fire departments can return the favor: incident command. While some in the private sector are attempting to incorporate incident command into their response systems, they are not familiar with ICS or their role in the system. The result is that industry responds to the scene and attempts to begin its operation, not realizing that a structured incident management system may be in place.

The fire service can bring its expertise to industry members, including them in drills, tabletop exercises and ICS training. The resulting relationship allows each to not only understand the other's capabilities and strengths, but establish an ongoing cooperative relationship that will contribute to improved emergency operations.

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Timothy P. Butters is the assistant chief for fire and EMS operations for the Fairfax (Va.) Fire Department. He served nearly 10 years as the managing director of CHEMTREC. Butters also previously served as the director of government relations for the International Association of Fire Chiefs and on the management staff of the U.S. Fire Administration He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from James Madison University.