Whitefish firefighters train for railroad disaster

Firefighters with the Whitefish Fire Department spent last week spraying blazing oil trains during a simulated exercise at the Security and Emergency Response Training Center in Pueblo, Colo.

The training provided by BNSF Railway focused on response to railroad incidents involving crude oil.

Captain Justin Woods, and firefighters Sarah Peterson and Cole Hadley trained for three days with hazardous materials specialists in Pueblo. Captains Travis Tveidt and Joe Rendahl along with firefighter Mike Zorn attended a similar training in October.

“[They now have] lots of great knowledge to share with the rest of the firefighters with some real world experience that I hope we never need,” Whitefish interim fire chief Joe Page said.

In late October, the fire department trained with BNSF crews to review response protocol for rail incidents in and around Whitefish.

They also trained on boom deployment on Whitefish Lake using the Whitefish fire boat.

BNSF has stock piled emergency response equipment and supplies at their Whitefish facility for both firefighting and water emergencies, Page noted.

“We’ve now trained with the emergency response contractors who will be responding to rail accidents,” Page said. “This cooperative training allows us to better initiate emergency operations.”