(The following appeared on the Contra Costa Times website on March 7, 2011.)
VERNON, Calif. — It was an emergency drill Sunday in an unusual setting that provided several challenges.
In the trench section of the Alameda Corridor, area firefighters had to extinguish a burning rail car with 20,000 pounds of chlorine that was near another car containing flammable ethanol vapors.
At the same time, other personnel had to rescue an injured train-crew member who slipped and broke his leg while investigating the burning rail car.
“Getting access to the site is the most difficult part of this drill,” said Don Kunitomi, a spokesman with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. “It’s 33 feet below ground.”
The full-scale exercise brought out firefighters from Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Vernon and Compton; officers and deputies from Los Angeles police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s departments, and representatives from Union Pacific and BNSF railroads and the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority.
The exercise simulated an incident inside the corridor, including the sighting of smoke from a cargo container on a train in the corridor trench, a fire on one of the cars, a leaking tank car and injured railroad personnel.
The full story appears on the Contra Costa Times website.