Just In Case Emergency Workers Prepare For Rail Spill Disaster

It wasn’t real. But it easily could have been.

A green plume of poisonous gas spewed from the wreckage of a train Thursday as emergency workers struggled to evacuate thousands of schoolchildren and the city of Rathdrum.

One hundred and fifty people - city workers and day-care children among them - were dead. Many more were injured.

In strained voices, firefighters and police shut down Interstate 90, called out the national guard and declared a state emergency.

Thankfully, on this day, the train wreck was only pretend. The poisonous gas was make-believe. The dead and injured people - a figment of the imagination.

It was all just a drill, albeit a realistic one.

Dozens of emergency workers from throughout Kootenai County spent Thursday playing out a worst case scenario: A train carrying deadly chlorine gas and propane had derailed in downtown Rathdrum. The gas was spilling into the air, the propane was leaking. Fires threatened to set off a violent explosion.

The purpose of the mock calamity was to prepare firefighters, police, school officials and others for the real thing.

Nearly 30,000 train cars full of hazardous chemicals pass through downtown Rathdrum and northern Kootenai County each year, said Bill Schwartz, director of the county’s disaster services.

Three schools sit within 100 yards of the Rathdrum tracks. City Hall, the police and fire departments are just a block away. There have been numerous instances of trains wrecking with cars downtown.

“I’ve watched the trains go by every day with all the HazMat placards,” said Rathdrum Fire Chief Wayne Nowacki, who first suggested the exercise.

“It wasn’t a pie in the sky exercise,” Schwartz said. “We didn’t blow it out of proportion. The danger is very real and very possible.”

Emergency workers gathered at a Coeur d’Alene Airport hangar and the Kootenai County Sheriff’s department early Wednesday. They watched a video simulating the crash and then rolled into action.

Radios crackled with orders as emergency workers hurriedly called out firetrucks and ambulances.

“We need to evacuate the schools,” Nowacki called out from a bus used as a command center.

A group of firefighters poured over maps, calling for the evacuation of Rathdrum and Twin Lakes as weather conditions blew the fake fumes over neighborhoods and businesses. Assistant Rathdrum Fire Chief Bob Maines asked for helicopters to stand ready.

Local reporters, recruited to help make the exercise seem realistic, prodded officials for information.

Bob Jones, superintendent of the Lakeland School District, organized the evacuation of thousands of schoolchildren. As he had them on the road to safety in one direction, the wind changed, forcing him to send the kids elsewhere for safety.

“It shows us what we can do well and what we need to work on,” said Ken Gabriel, a Coeur d’Alene firefighter.

Participants reviewed the exercise afterward, deciding communication needed to be better.

Emergency officials spent two years preparing this mock disaster. Several table top exercises came first. Next spring they will do it again - only this time there will be less pretending. Schoolchildren may really practice evacuating. Firetrucks and other emergency vehicles will be used for real.

These exercises helped the Lakeland School District implement an emergency plan. Jones estimates he was able to get the schoolchildren to safety within 45 minutes.

“With three of our schools so close to the railroad tracks we felt we had to plan better for this kind of emergency,” he said.

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