At the Sedro-Woolley Fire Department’s training facility, firefighters can practice putting out fires that have erupted in homes and gas stations, practice their rescue techniques and learn to extricate victims stuck in a vehicle after a crash.
Soon, firefighters will also be able to train for what may happen if one of the many oil tank cars that run through Skagit County every day should overturn and catch fire.
Thanks to a donation from BNSF Railway, the department now has a 64,000-pound oil tank car it will soon be able to set on fire for practice.
“As we know, accidents happen,” Sedro-Woolley Fire Department Assistant Chief Todd Olson said. “These accidents can be quite devastating.”
BNSF is required to provide training for firefighters, but most of it occurs at the Security and Emergency Response Training Center in Pueblo, Colorado, Olson said.
Sedro-Woolley is the only department in the state to have its own oil tank car, Olson said. Even the state fire academy in North Bend doesn’t have one, he said.