Area emergency responders prepared for the possibility of a train derailment on campus Wednesday, even though officials agreed it would be an unlikely event.
"The chances of a train derailment with the release of chemicals is the same as if you have a child play in the NFL," said Joe Tupa, a manager with hazardous materials and field services for CSX Corp. — the company that supplied the trains for training exercises near the Simon Power Plant. "It's remote, but there is that possibility."
After spending the morning in a classroom setting, MSU police officers, the East Lansing Fire Department, the Lansing Fire Department and the Meridian Township Fire Department gained hands-on experience in learning how to halt a chemical leak from a tank in a derailed train.
"The way the vent accesses pressure, it's just like a can of shaving cream has a pressure-release button," Tupa said. "If it opens and becomes defective, we need a way to cap that off."
It is important to prepare for a possible chemical complication of a train derailment because of the danger it poses, Tupa said.
"They're going through towns carrying everything from explosives to class-nine miscellaneous chemicals," he said.
Two railroad tracks run on south campus near Service and Mount Hope roads. CSX Corp. runs trains on the southernmost track, MSU police Inspector Mary Johnson said.
MSU police, including those who conduct crime scene investigations, learned how to handle a C-kit, the equipment used to cap off a leak, Johnson said.
"MSU police would not per se be doing the application of a C-kit, but we felt it was important to give all the first responders an overall understanding of what would happen," Johnson said.
Leo Allaire, spokesman for the department, said the classroom portion covered such topics as how to interpret the writing on the tanks, among other things.
"We spent four hours on how to shut down an engine on a train," Allaire said. "A lot more is involved than just turning a key."
Last spring, CSX Corp. came to campus to do a class on the operations of the train, but Allaire said he thinks this is the first time officials could have the hands-on training.
Tupa said it's important for officers to get up close and personal with the trains.
"If they read about it in books, that's fine — that's good information," Tupa said. "But until you can physically see, 'This is what I have to deal with,' it gives you a better idea how to do it."
