Ohio Train Derailment and Explosions: Canadian R&D Underway Around Rail/ Haz Mat Incidents

Early Saturday a 100 car train on the Norfolk Southern line bound for Conway Pennsylvania derailed and 10 of its 20 Hazardous Materials cars became involved in a long duration fire and a number of large explosions. Evacuations more than a mile from the site were conducted by local and State first responders. Remarkably approximately 500 residents refused the evacuation order. While the fires and the risk of explosion continue as this article is being drafted; we are reminded of past incidents in Canada, community risk as a result of rail operations and ongoing work by organizations to lower risk.

In 2009-2011 Emergency Solutions International supported community risk assessments conducted across Canada by Defence Research and Development Canada | Recherche et développement pour la défense Canada . For each community studied, hazardous materials incidents were recognized as probable, high consequence and usually beyond the response capability of the primary community.

In July of 2013 the tragedy of the Lac Megantic rail disaster elevated the response to high complexity derailments to be a high priority. One of the key areas for progress in effective response to complex rail incidents is sound evidence based research around the modelling of heat transfer, lading response and pressure relief as they relate to the orientation of the rail cars as they come to rest and pressure dynamics as the cars are exposed to Pool Fires. Understanding incident escalation can heavily influence response strategies. Having a better understanding what the risk to responders and citizens is in a dynamic rail incident can influence decisions like offensive versus defensive posture, evacuation/isolation distances and prioritization of use of scarce resources (thanks bean counters).

The team at Ressources naturelles Canada (RNCan) - Scientific Research Division/Canmet ENERGY Ottawa Labs, has been working tirelessly to understand in higher resolution the dynamics around heat transfer and potential exponential failure of tank cars during pool fire impingement. Products like various crude oils, bitumen and condensates were examined for their dynamics within tank cars, in intense pool fire incidents. Results from this tremendous body of work will heavily influence the training for Hazardous Materials Response Technicians and Community Responders as it relates to risk like BLEVE - Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion.

A summary for the report findings may be accessed at?https://tc.canada.ca/en/dangerous-goods/publications/crude-oil-research/research-summary-modelling-heat-transfer-lading-response-pressure-relief-crude-oil-rail-tank-cars-fire

Emergency Solutions International is pleased to be assisting the leaders from NRCan and the New Brunswick Office of the Provincial Fire Marshal as they bring the findings of their research to the response and Emergency Planning community to ensure New Brunswick is #secureresilientcompetitive

#emergencymanagement #hazardousmaterials #Throughtrainingweremember

For more information please contact me at [email protected].