Pittsburgh first responders train with Norfolk Southern for emergencies involving freight trains
Pittsburgh first responders trained Thursday to prepare for incidents involving freight trains — still top of mind, given what happened in East Palestine, Ohio, a few years ago.
In the Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood, crews with Pittsburgh fire and EMS were getting training aboard a Norfolk Southern freight train.
Acting Chief Matthew Davis said it was the culmination of three years of training with the company.
"We get an uninterrupted look at all the equipment that you might see that comes through our town on a train, whether it's valves, the different types of cars," Davis said.
It's something they've previously done outside the area, but this week they and other local agencies were doing hands-on training with Norfolk Southern itself.
"You're always concerned of what the possibilities that can arise," Davis said.
Those possibilities are like what happened a little more than three years ago across the Ohio-Pennsylvania border in East Palestine, when a Norfolk Southern train derailed, bursting into flames and releasing toxic chemicals into the air.
Heather Garcia is a senior manager of communications with the freight provider.
"One of the most important things for us is making sure that we're building, growing, maintaining those relationships with first responders," said Heather Garcia, the senior manager of communications with the freight provider.
Garcia said despite training of this type starting years before the incident, they're constantly making improvements.
"The training itself always evolves, but we're also always adding different elements to keep our system safe, to keep our community safe, to keep our people safe," Garcia said.
Since the hazardous incident, the company added technology like digital inspection portals that examine equipment for defects, along with a similar system for wheels. It's also installed more hot bearing detectors and decreased the distance between them, so cars are checked more often.
There's also the app AskRail, which, during the derailment, first responders couldn't connect to to learn what materials were on board. They've partnered with RapidSOS, which is a program that pushes out information about what's on board a train in real time in the event of an emergency.
"We've built in backups to our backups and kind of safety nets to make sure that no matter what, first responders can access that information they need," Garcia said.
Davis said they just want to continue to prepare for any scenario that comes their way.
"We are just enhancing those skills with these resources here now," Davis said. "We'll be ready."
Beyond these traveling sessions, Norfolk Southern is also set to build a permanent training center in East Palestine in partnership with Youngstown State University. It's currently in the planning and design phase.
