Coaldale prepared for rail emergency
Rail line goes through middle of town
Officials say there have been no major train derailments in the Town of Coaldale so far. But that doesn’t stop emergency responders from being prepared in case it ever did happen.
The Town of Coaldale conducted a training exercise called “Broken Rail” for the Town’s Emergency Operations Centre and Emergency Management Agency on Thursday.
Broken Rail gave staff of the EOC the chance to practise their skills and apply their knowledge in a simulated town response to the release of a large quantity of a dangerous good due to a train derailment.
“Doing an exercise like Broken Rail today gives us a chance to practise some of our procedures and techniques, and enhance the knowledge of the staff so that we’re able to respond effectively to a largescale emergency or disaster, and more importantly we’ll be able to recover more quickly,” said Mark Murphy, the Town of Coaldale’s director of Emergency Management. “Public safety is very, very important to the Town. We take it seriously and that’s why we’re doing this exercise.”
In the past several weeks and months there have been a number of train derailments within the province. In midOctober, extreme winds were blamed for two train derailments near Wainwright and Huxley in central Alberta. A few weeks earlier, the Town of Coalhurst dealt with a derailment of six train cars carrying crude oil, one which had a leak.
Murphy said Coaldale has prepared plans for other disaster scenarios such as wildfires or overland flooding, which they have experienced in the past.
With the railway running through the middle of the town, parallel to Highway 3, a train derailment could potentially be a major disaster.
“We have lots of trains that run through town and there’s never an incident. We all hope that stays the same, but hope isn’t a course of action,” said Murphy. “So we’re doing this to get prepared in case it does happen.”
The team has completed a few different types of training exercises already. This one immersed the staff in a complete experience including conference calls, computer programs and social media. They will continue to practise next year and hope to conduct a full mock disaster scenario in 2019.
A number of agencies were involved in Thursday’s exercise to co-ordinate an organized response including Canadian Pacific Railway, Alberta Health Services, local school divisions and seniors lodges, as well as the Coaldale Medical Clinic, the City of Lethbridge and Lethbridge County.
One goal of the exercise was to practise receiving information from the incident commander, relaying it to the EOC, then ensuring the correct information is communicated to corporate and public citizens.
“Places like schools and hospitals and seniors lodges, they may need more time if they have to evacuate,” said Murphy. “So we want to give them as much information as quickly as we can so they can be as prepared if they have to evacuate.”
Kevin McKeown, Coaldale’s fire chief, would be one of the first on the scene. He would likely assume the role of incident commander and be responsible for activating the EOC. Some of his responsibilities would include determining the size and scope of the emergency, whether to call for mutual aid, how to protect people and plan for sheltering in place or evacuation.
“It’s extremely important to be trained. This is not something you can just throw together and in the heat of the moment know what to do,” said McKeown. “It’s extremely important when a community has a disaster such as this that you can jump into action, and that people know their roles and what to do when the time comes.”
Although the Town hasn’t dealt with a derailment, McKeown said they do respond to several train incidents every year. Most often it’s a vehicle vs. train collision.
“Semi trucks or vehicles trying to get through an intersection before it is safe to do so,” he said. “So close calls, yes. The potential is there for a large-scale disaster at some point but we’ve been lucky so far.”
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