A long week was spent at the Justice Institute of British Columbia’s Maple Ridge Fire College by industry workers and emergency response contractors learning about how to respond to railway dangerous goods incidents.

This 40 hour course conducted by the RAC’s Dangerous Goods Team consisted of lectures by numerous experienced railway emergency responders followed a majority of the time, by outside, hands-on field exercises. As it turned out, with the unpredictable weather patterns at the foot of the Rocky mountains, the class was faced with some poor weather conditions which added to the realism of the field exercises.

At the end of the week, 36 students were sent home with an increased knowledge of railway operations, tank cars and railway emergency response techniques.

The RAC Dangerous Goods team wishes to thank the following organizations for their assistance:

Canexus, Midland Valve, Rupture Seal, CN, CPR, BNSF, and Transport Canada.