(file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Ronald Quaroni

Derailment Protocol

Prince Albert’s fallout risk from derailment is minimal according to PAFD

Feb 6, 2020 | 1:00 PM

Following a second train derailment Thursday morning near the town of Guernsey, Prince Albert residents may be wondering about the fallout of a train derailment in the city.

Prince Albert Fire Department’s (PAFD) Deputy Chief, told paNOW that is a common reaction.

“I would say that is probably the natural tendency. When you see something on the news, the first thought that runs through your mind is, ‘Is that something that can happen to me or in my home location?’” Alex Paul said.

While the risk of derailment is possible in the city the potential side effects are minimal.

“In Prince Albert we wouldn’t have any full oil tankers coming through. We are a dead-end line. Our only connection to the main rail system is through the track that runs south on Highway 11. Beyond that, going north it runs to the White Star Elevator and just a bit to the east of Prince Albert,” Paul said.

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“P.A. has a lot of grain passing through. Outside of that, they do some rail car storage here. We’ll see oil cars in the rail yard but those would be empty cars they are storing.”

Should a derailment occur, Paul said traffic disruptions would probably be the number one concern.

PAFD Chief Kris Olsen said in hazardous material (hazmat) situations the department first isolates the scene of the incident and then works to identify the product.

“Contact the manufacturer, contact the transporter, contact the supplier. We’ll get all those exercises working. Once we know what the product is, then we can go into a triage incident and decide what is priority,” Olsen said.

From there the department would work on a response. If the situation was out of scope for the department, Olsen noted they would call Environment Saskatchewan and other agencies to assist.

Olsen recalled in his time at the department, the city has been fortunate to not have any noteworthy rail car incidents.

Paul did recall an incident approximately 25 years ago when a grain car partially came off the tracks at the bottom of Second Avenue West.

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Ron.quaroni@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @RonaldQuaroni