Well, this sort of thing doesn't happen "daily." The idea is for it not to happen at all. And it does seem that there was contingency planning to the extent of knowing what to do in order to prevent a tank explosion (worse event). In this case, a deliberate burn was necessary in order to consume the vinyl chloride on the spot.
You have to realize that fire extinguishers are for the purpose of dealing with a minor fire. If there is a major fire, we have fire departments equipped and ready to handle it. For chemical shipments, unless there is a minor leak that is not progressing, there is no such thing as a "minor fire." And there are no fire departments. Safety depends on defensive design practice and transportation procedures. We are lucky to have anyone available in the event of an emergency to advise crisis response and remedial action. In the final event, vulnerable bystanders must be evacuated. There is no timetable to work to. Sooner is better, but you don't want to jeopardize safety with haste.
Sometimes the completely unforeseeable happens. I read of an incident where a tanker truck of liquid oxygen developed a leak and poured its load all over the asphalt roadway. No big deal? It turns out that liquid oxygen + asphalt forms a deadly sensitive high explosive, so they had to prohibit anyone on the roadway until everything had warmed back to ambient temperature.
The other thing, that doesn't seem much considered here, is that the truly responsible party is the railroad company. I am surprised that journal boxes in railcars have a potentiality for catching fire (but grease and oil are combustible). The direction to "Keep on going" was surprising, but it may have been desired to get the train to the nearest siding that could take its length, so as not to block the line for following traffic. The actual cause of the derailment is also of concern (we had derailment sabotage from environmentalist activists in our neck of the woods, several years ago). In my own view, people have too cavalier an attitude toward the railroads, not realizing that they are important to us and that nothing should be done to compromise the integrity of the tracks.
Well, this sort of thing doesn't happen "daily." The idea is for it not to happen at all. And it does seem that there was contingency planning to the extent of knowing what to do in order to prevent a tank explosion (worse event). In this case, a deliberate burn was necessary in order to consume the vinyl chloride on the spot.
You have to realize that fire extinguishers are for the purpose of dealing with a minor fire. If there is a major fire, we have fire departments equipped and ready to handle it. For chemical shipments, unless there is a minor leak that is not progressing, there is no such thing as a "minor fire." And there are no fire departments. Safety depends on defensive design practice and transportation procedures. We are lucky to have anyone available in the event of an emergency to advise crisis response and remedial action. In the final event, vulnerable bystanders must be evacuated. There is no timetable to work to. Sooner is better, but you don't want to jeopardize safety with haste.
Sometimes the completely unforeseeable happens. I read of an incident where a tanker truck of liquid oxygen developed a leak and poured its load all over the asphalt roadway. No big deal? It turns out that liquid oxygen + asphalt forms a deadly sensitive high explosive, so they had to prohibit anyone on the roadway until everything had warmed back to ambient temperature.
The other thing, that doesn't seem much considered here, is that the truly responsible party is the railroad company. I am surprised that journal boxes in railcars have a potentiality for catching fire (but grease and oil are combustible). The direction to "Keep on going" was surprising, but it may have been desired to get the train to the nearest siding that could take its length, so as not to block the line for following traffic. The actual cause of the derailment is also of concern (we had derailment sabotage from environmentalist activists in our neck of the woods, several years ago). In my own view, people have too cavalier an attitude toward the railroads, not realizing that they are important to us and that nothing should be done to compromise the integrity of the tracks.