Eastern Railroad Discussion > NJ-Bergen County firefighters and the oil trains

Bergen County NJ municipal firefighters met with the county executive yesterday to discuss their concerns about increased oil and ethanol train activity in their county. CSX operates at least 30 oil and ethanol loads through the county each week. Many small town departments through which the CSX River Line (former NY Central West Shore) passes are staffed by volunteer firefighters.

This being NJ, there are multiple back stories.

--The firefighters are upset that the state has information about the trains, but refuses to release it to them.
--The county would like to establish a regional fire service with specialized equipment to supplement the local departments, although the locals would (each) like to have their own specialized equipment.
--The railroad would apparently prefer that the info and destinations remain confidential as a matter of business privacy.
--The county exec is well known for favoring more centralized support operations, while the county board would prefer to limit services which are controlled by the exec.

The Bergen Record has a summary

<http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2014/10/bergen_county_firefighters_say_they_cant_fight_oil_train_fires_without_help.html#incart_river&gt;



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/14 06:39 by Lackawanna484.

I grew up along what was more properly known as the NYC River Division. The individual borough-owned and volunteer fire departments and rescue squads were fine for the 1950s, not for the 21st century. For those not familiar with the towns (boroughs) along the CSX River Line in Bergen County, they are almost all residential and local stores, post offices, etc. The volunteer fire departments were very independent and the thought of a county-wide, paid fire department is likely very disturbing to many.

John

NO single fire department, full or volunteer, or even several of them together will EVER be in ANY way equipped to handle the situation if a major derailment/fire breaks out. Short of maybe picking a few centralized locations to have backup fire fighting material and equipment on hand, I think the whole thing is just a futile waste of time. There is simply no way to be prepared everywhere all the time for the potential magnitude of these disasters, whether they be oil trains, other types of train explosions or chemical releases, or major natural disasters. You just have to do the best you can with what you have, pick up the pieces and move on.