(The following article by Ron Sylvester was posted on the Wichita Eagle website on August 20.)
WICHITA, Kansas — About a million tons of hazardous chemicals and other dangerous materials roll through Sedgwick County each year by train. More than a hundred times that come down the highways of Wichita by truck.
Fortunately, there aren’t many major accidents. And in Kansas, no one has died from such an occurrence during the past decade, state records show.
But just one bad accident could spell a catastrophe, and those who get the first call to such emergencies want to be prepared.
Officials from the rail and truck transportation industries are traveling across the state to take training for these kinds of emergencies to firefighters, hazardous material squads and other emergency responders.
This week, it came to Wichita.
“We’re learning about the construction of the trucks, how the rail cars operate, and it’s really valuable information we need to help protect the public,” said Capt. Brian Hoy of the Wichita Fire Department.
During Friday’s training in Wichita, Hoy and colleagues from as far away as Parsons learned where to find — and how to operate — shut-off valves and pressure valves, and where to most likely find leaks at an accident scene.
“What makes this different from other kinds of training is that it offers hands-on experience with the equipment,” said Randy Duncan, director of Sedgwick County emergency management.
Actually operating the shut-off valves and seeing the equipment before an emergency gives those who respond familiarity before a crisis, trainers say.
“If they can hold it and shake it, it helps,” said John Prather, a trainer for the trucking industry from Groendyke Transport.
Friday ended three days of training in Wichita through a group called TransCAER — for Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response. The group is a voluntary association within the transportation industry that helps train emergency response crews across the country.
The group will visit 10 cities across Kansas this month and next.
A Sedgwick County report showed more than 20,000 rail cars, each containing 100,000 pounds of hazardous material, roll through Mulvane each year.
More than 100 million tons of toxic and dangerous material come through the Wichita area in trucks.
It’s more likely Wichita would see a catastrophe from a chemical accident than a terrorist attack.
“And it would be very serious,” said Bryon McNeil, a trauma doctor at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus who specializes in biological and chemical emergencies.
Ethanol was a focus of this week’s training.
Trainers Prather and Brock Lowman of BNSF Railroad said the production of the alternative fuel is expected to dramatically increase in states such as Kansas and Iowa in the coming years.
“It’s not the kind of fuel that you can transport by pipeline,” Prather said. “Mostly it will be carried by rail or truck.”
Ethanol brings new dangers.
“It’s highly flammable and it’s more volatile than diesel fuel,” said McNeil, the Via Christi physician. “You could see explosions, and the burns and blunt-force traumas that come with that. You could see more severe burns, and more of them.”
Firefighters also need different materials and methods to fight an ethanol fire.
Said Hoy of the Wichita Fire Department: “We’ve heard a lot about ethanol. A lot.”