Local leaders gathered on Wednesday night to voice their concerns over oil trains passing through Spokane.
City officials have met to discuss oil trains in the past, but Wednesday’s meeting welcomed the voices of local emergency responders.
Among them was the head of the local fire union who said that he and his fellow responders would be totally unprepared for an oil train disaster.
The local firefighting union is now urging Governor Inslee to ban oil trains from passing through Washington.
The head of the union said he believes it is only a matter of time before disaster happens close to Spokane.
“No level of staffing, no amount of equipment, apparatus, or personnel is enough to keep this from being anything less that cataclysmic to our community,” he said.
Environmental concerns were also raised at the meeting.
According to Jerry White of the Spokane River Keeper, local bridges are not strong enough to withhold the weight of additional oil trains. He warned that he believes local bridges would fail, causing derailments to happen and catastrophe to occur in the river.
“We feel the industry is asking us as a community to risk our river every day with very little benefit,” said White.