It’s another three days of training, but Telkwa Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief, Corey Kortmeyer, knows it can save lives and that’s what counts.
Kortmeyer, on behalf of the TVFD, successfully applied for a grant to receive a three-day hazardous materials and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive response training session offered jointly by the International Association of Firefighters and Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.
“Spills are on everyone’s mind because we have proposed lines running through our area and trains are already hauling all of this stuff and some is being carried by commercial tractor trailers,” Kortmeyer said to describe the motivation behind his application for the course.
Adding to the urgency is a sudden surge in the number of tractor-trailers tipping over on the hill just east of the municipal offices.
“The concern for us is that we will be called first, we’ll be first on scene and generally those are the people that succumb to fatalities because they don’t know what’s in the spill,” Kortmeyer said.
The course includes topics such as hazardous material characteristics, health and safety threats, as well as exercises to identify hazards and planning stages for communities in the event of an evacuation.
“I think as we get more and more activity through here it will be important to identify the risks,” Kortmeyer said.
“They [Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs] don’t want first responders to be placed in a position of peril.
“So identifying the hazard is key.”
Although the important component of the course is the training to identify hazardous materials, Kortmeyer noted the evacuation planning is also key for municipalities such as Telkwa that are bisected by the railway.
“In our community we’ve had train derailments and if you look at where the tracks are and how it bisects our community and imagine that we have to establish an evacuation zone of up to 1 km, that doesn’t leave much of Telkwa left,” Kortmeyer said.
The training is available for at least 35 individuals and Kortmeyer has extended an invitation to other first responders, including ambulance and the RCMP to send members to participate in the training.
“Hopefully they can add this [training] to their toolbox, bring it back to their hall, ambulance station or detachment and use it to make sure everybody comes home,” Kortmeyer said.