Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 4, 1994 TAG: 9410040075
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"This is great stuff," said the Harrisonburg firefighter. He tapped a pipe that went from floor to ceiling, noted the "wash out" drain in the floor and the safety pressure valve above his head. "I've never been inside one of these before."
Like a modern-day Jonah swallowed by a whale, Miller gawked at his surroundings - the interior of a railroad tank car built specifically to train emergency workers, like himself, for responding to hazardous material spills and accidents.
For three hours Monday morning, he and dozens of other emergency workers from around Western Virginia wandered through a sort of giant playground, an exhibit in Roanoke filled with rail cars, over-the-road tanker trucks and emergency vehicles.
The exhibit launched a six-city "whistle stop" tour that started in Roanoke and ends Thursday in New Orleans. It is sponsored by TRANSCAER, or Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response, a coalition of rail, trucking and chemical firms to promote emergency preparedness for hazardous material accidents.
On a real tanker car, the round metal gauge would measure liquids or gases inside the tanker. Miller said he would show his picture and more to his co-workers at the Harrisonburg Fire Department to share the information.
"It's like a boxer before going into a fight," he explained of his fascination with every detail of the rail tanker. "You want to know what you're opponent is like."
The TRANSCAER tour aims to help local emergency planners stay up on all the latest information and techniques to fight chemical fires, gasoline spills, toxic gas leaks and all sorts of other accidents, called "incidents" by the emergency workers.
Sergeants J.F. Ratcliffe and K.A. Johnson are the hazardous material offices for the Roanoke Police Department. They also serve as guinea pigs for the real hazmat specialists, Johnson said.
"When we walk up and fall down, then they know its dangerous," he joked.
But in a serious situation, police might be the first responders and must be able to assess the danger, Johnson said. He and Ratcliffe are learning the codes and symbols that appear on all vehicles carrying hazardous material.
Tommy Harper, hazardous material coordinator for Bedford County, was anxious to check some of the valves, spouts and other design elements of rail cars and and tankers up close, because any tidbit of knowledge could be invaluable during an "incident."
Harper was also glad to meet and mingle with other local emergency folk, especially representatives from the transportation and chemical industries.
The purpose of the open house is to build partnerships among those three groups, said David Schoendorfer, manager of hazardous materials at Norfolk Southern.
Every year, NS carries more than 200,000 loads of hazardous material, defined as flammable, corrosive, poisonous or radioactive. That's about one of every 20 shipments. Much of the material transported by NS is flammable or corrosive, compared with less than one percent radioactive material.
NS rails between the Roanoke and New River valleys carry some of the heaviest concentrations in the state, anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 loads yearly.
And Interstate 81 is another high-volume route. "Everything, literally everything," is shipped over I-81, Miller said. "Every call is potentially a hazmat call."
by CNB