VIDEO: Many firefighters will go their whole careers without seeing a train crash, derailment, or train hazard spill. But it’s the one time it does happen, and being prepared for it, that can mean the difference between life and death.
“You can actually YouTube a video of a tank car imploding," said a Norfolk Southern Railway instructor. "It’s a rail car that’s being off loaded out of a facility, wasn’t vented appropriately, once it got enough liquid out and there was more vapor space in that car. That vacuum finally overcame the structural integrity of that car and it sucks it in like a coke can.” Many thousands of tons of chemicals and fuels are transported on Atlanta railways.
Firefighters got a rare chance to learn about the carriage systems that transport these hazardous materials.