One local resident spent a week at a training center in Colorado designed to prepare leaders and managers in hazardous material situations involving surface transportation.
Gary Taylor, a volunteer with the Ogle Lee Fire Protection District in Creston participated in the five-day, 40-hour course at the Security and Emergency Response Training Center (SERTC) in Pueblo, Colo., in July.
The class titled, “Leadership and Management of Surface Transportation Incidents (LMSTI),” is held six times a year with 10 people in each class. He explained his reasoning for enrolling in the class.
“I was trying to get into this class for two years, and they called me a few days before with a last minute cancellation,” Taylor said. “If I was ever put in a [surface transportation incident], I would want to know what to do, and not get anyone in trouble.”
Typically during a real life emergency situation, the leadership or management team has about six or seven positions including an officer, safety, operations, command, and scribe. Taylor explained the person assigned as a scribe would translate verbal communications to a written board at the command center.
Several scenarios were presented including a simulated train derailment. Taylor explained during the simulation, the railroad cars had different chemicals in each car and the first step the trainees did was to evaluate the scene.

“We then had to come up with a plan to prioritize the response. In this case it was chlorine, which is the deadliest,” Taylor explained of the training exercise. “We learned how to mitigate, and one mixes with another. You have cyanide, or maybe something radioactive. This is what you could end up with. In Rochelle we have the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Union Pacific train lines coming through.”
Another scenario simulated a large six-car accident including three tanker trucks on an interstate highway. One of the vehicles was lodged under a truck. During the “rescue” the emergency responder opened up the semi doors and “smoke” contaminated them.
“First we had to find out what the chemical was, evaluate the vehicle, and determine if the “occupants” were viable to rescue,” Taylor said. “This was a challenging exercise…while doing the exercise one of the responders had a heart attack, so we had to learn steps to decontaminate them, then cut the rubber suit and perform CPR.”

Vital training
Training is vital for first responders, including emergencies involving hazardous materials. Taylor stressed that at all times during each training exercise, the chemicals were simulated, as was the cardiac event. These incidents were all intended to give a real-life scenario as much as possible, given these really could take place.
As assistant area chief in Creston, Taylor is also a member of MABAS Division 6 Hazardous Materials Team of DeKalb. After this latest training session, Taylor will be meeting with his division coordinator to see how to utilize what he has learned and relay that to the rest of the team.
Belonging to the hazardous materials response team with DeKalb allows local fire departments to utilize the specialized equipment, and in a case of an emergency situation, that team could be called to Rochelle or the surrounding areas.
Along with participating in scenarios, Taylor explained he has learned effective response strategies and that weather does play a big factor in how emergency personnel handle real-life situations.
“The science part is changing by the day. Chemicals are evolving,” Taylor explained. “The weather can wreak havoc with the operations from a time and safety point, especially the extreme heat and cold.”

This is the second time at SERTC for Taylor. His first training session was in 2015 when he received valuable insight and training in the event of a crude oil railcar derailment. During the four days, firefighters from across the country participated in classroom and field exercises.
Before the crude oil railcar derailment training, Taylor explained he realized just how many of those railcars actually pass through Rochelle on a daily basis, originating from the North Dakota oil fields on their way east to the refineries. Taylor said after that training at SERTC, he now has a better idea how to address the issues at hand in the event of a crude oil railcar derailment.

About SERTC

The Security and Emergency Response Training Center (SERTC) is operated by the Transportation Technology Center, Inc., a subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads. Their original mission was to train railroad officials to safely handle accidents involving tank cars carrying hazardous materials. The training proved to be so successful that attendance was opened up to other emergency responders. They serve not only the transportation service industry, but also the public sector emergency response community, the chemical industry, government agencies, and emergency response contractors from all over the world. Since their inception, SERTC has trained well over 50,000 students worldwide.

Local fire department meetings
Anyone interested in joining the Lee Ogle Fire Protection District is asked to attend the meetings each Monday at 7 p.m. in Creston, Hillcrest, Flagg Center, and Steward, and must live in the district.