New Jersey Disaster Drill Focuses on Train Derailment

ELMWOOD PARK -- The scene Sunday morning at the dead end of Wallace Street had all the elements of a tragedy -- a yellow school bus full of children colliding with a rail car carrying propane gas.

But the children were only acting, and there was no propane in the rail car. Instead, the scenario was part of a drill planned for more than a year to test the emergency preparedness of the borough's first responders, focusing on railroad disasters.

Councilman Frank Fasolo, who has been lobbying for such a drill for as long as they have been planning it, said the exercise was a much-needed one.

Elmwood Park is nearly bisected by rails owned by the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway, whose trains typically carry freight, he said. "Some of these train cars could have toxic chemicals," he said, pointing to recent train derailments in Pennsylvania and Paterson.

Twenty-four tanker rail cars, some loaded with ethanol, derailed in New Brighton, Pa., Saturday, some catching fire and burning through the weekend, according to The Associated Press. In June, eight freight cars of a train owned by the NYSW derailed near 12th Avenue and East 16th Street, causing the evacuation of 75 families and destroying two surrounding vehicles.

The freight cars in that incident were carrying polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, according to two official reports about the derailment.

"A few months ago we had the derailment across the river and we said to ourselves, 'Oh My God!'" Fasolo said.

At about 10 a.m. on Sunday morning, the councilman was standing at the end of Wallace Street, watching as the drill unfolded.

Sgt. Barry Leventhal, of the Bergen County Police Department's emergency management office, standing at the scene with a notepad and pen, was there to assess the test. "A full-scale exercise mirrors what we do in day-to-day operations," said the 23-year veteran of law enforcement. "And we learn from it."

About that time, three of the borough's black and red fire trucks rolled up to the staging area around the bus and rail car. Firefighters, clad in their uniforms and carrying their heavy equipment, spread hoses across the ground to set up water cannons. Soon, they had water arcing from the cannons at three different angles across the body of the school bus and rail car.

The victims of the staged crash were already inside the bus. Members of the borough's all-volunteer emergency medical team arrived and opened the back door to rescue the "victims."

Down Wallace Street, across a carpet of hoses laid out on the road, the police and fire departments had the borough's recently acquired emergency command center operating.

"You want to set up the command post upwind from the area," said Police Chief Don Ingrasselino, standing nearby.

Children were being laid in stretchers in a staging area behind the command post. One had an ice pack on his leg, another had his arm in a sling.

By about noon, the drill was winding down. Firefighters, police and emergency personnel planned to go to the American Legion Post nearby and assess the drill.

"It went pretty good," said the borough's fire chief, Phil Cheski, whose son also volunteered to play one of the victims in the crash. "There's always lessons to learn."

Representatives of NYSW were invited to observe Sunday's drill but did not attend.

Reach Cristian Salazar at 973-569-7165 .

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