The Washington Fire Chiefs (WFC) sent a letter to BNSF Railroad on March 6th, 2015 expressing their concern regarding oil train safety, and requesting vital information regarding worst case scenarios, catastrophic insurance levels, comprehensive emergency response plans and route analysis documents.
BNSF contacted the WFC shortly after receiving the letter, and requested a meeting be set up. This meeting took place on April 30th, 2015 and included representation from the WFC, BNSF, Washington State Senate staff, Washington State Association of Fire Fighters and the Washington State Fire Commissioners Association.
The meeting that lasted over two hours went well and both sides agreed they learned more about issues surrounding safety and response for crude oil trains through the open dialogue. All of the issues requested in the letter either are or will soon be available weather directly or indirectly through associated public service agencies such as the fusion center, SERC, EMD or other such agencies. We agreed that the recent state and federal legislation would be an excellent framework for improving the current state of affairs. We will now review the information presented by BNSF and will plan to meet again in the near future to further discuss citizen safety and crude oil train disaster prevention, as well as response. In all, the WFC felt good about the attitude and the openness of all who attended. The WFC felt progress was made today.
Download full press release below.