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Following the western North Dakota oil boom has been significantly increased shipping of Bakken Crude by rail tank cars through Moorhead.  While the risk of a derailment and fire has almost certainly increased simply due to increase volume of traffic, many communities have  found that they are not adequately prepared to analyze the hazards and options to respond to a derailment in their community.  BNSF Railway recognized this need and has sponsored firefighters from across the country to attend training in Peblo Colorado to learn about the hazards and options to safely respond to railroad based crude oil fires.

Moorhead Assistant Chief Jeff Wallin completed three days of training last week at the Security and Emergency Response Training Center.  The training included a day and one half of classroom instructions on tank car characteristics, crude oil properties, physics of derailments and releases, mitigation options and case studies of recent incidents in the United States and Canada.  The training concluded with a full-day of live-fire incident responses along a full-scale crude oil derailment on the 52-square mile Transportation Technology Center Inc. facility.

Moorhead joined people from departments across the country and close to home (including: Devil’s Lake, ND; Dayton, MN; St. Paul, MN, and the MN DNR), forming integrated response crews to assess damage, cool exposed tanks, and apply foam blankets to extinguish bulk crude oil fires.  Additional personnel from Moorhead are scheduled to attend this training in November and December.  Transportation, tuition and lodging are being paid for by the BNSF Railway. Check out more photos on our flickr page.