Six empty railroad tankers–that had carried chlorine and hydrochloric acid–parked on a siding near Santiam Forest Products caused great concern for Sweet Home firefighters during last weekend’s $1.75 million fire.
Fire Chief Mike Beaver said the tanks, carried by the Albany and Eastern Railroad, were empty but had not been purged of materials.
“There were four chlorine tanks and two hydrofluoric acid tanks,” Chief Beaver said. “Even though they were empty, sometimes they are more dangerous because the gas inside expands.”
Chief Beaver said his department notified Mike Root, president of the rail line of the fire, but was told it would take at least two hours to get a crew to Sweet Home to move the tanks.
“The tanks were within 50 yards of the fire,” Chief Beaver said. “It was extremely hot there. I tried to pull my vehicle there and couldn’t because it was so hot.”
Chief Beaver said the east wind blowing that night could have caused problems if the hazardous materials had leaked or exploded.
“We would have evacuated people from here to Lebanon,” Chief Beaver said. “We would not have been able to fight the fire.”
Root said his company was storing the tanks on a temporary basis for a private company.
“We have tanks in Sweet Home, Lebanon and Albany,” Root said. “They are an overflow from a chemical plant. The cars aren’t full but there is residue in them.”
Some of the cars have been purged, Root said.
“The cars are not hazardous, they come and they go,” Root said.
As of last week, some 39 cars were located in Sweet Home. Root planned to move some of those cars on Monday. He said there were 40 cars in Lebanon as of Friday.
“Chlorine is non-flammable,” Root said. “We meet all state and federal regulations. We notify all emergency services groups of what has been handled in the past year in their areas. Until this year, we hadn’t handled hazardous waste up there.”
Root said regulations do not require him to notify the city when moving hazardous materials in or out.
“Think of all the trucks going up and down I-5,” Root said. “They couldn’t contact every town they pass through whenever they carried a hazardous material.”
Root said his company emphasizes safety at all times but especially so when handling hazardous materials.
“We don’t handle any nuclear materials,” Root said. “We maintain our tracks very well and have put a lot of money into them. We haven’t ever had a derailment when carrying hazardous materials and we haven’t had any derailments in a long time.”
Root said the tanks did not pose a threat to the community or the firefighters.
“They are far enough away from any structures there wouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “It’s much safer to haul these materials by train than in trucks going up and down the highway.”
Root said a tank car will hold about 200,000 pounds of chlorine, or about four times what a truck can haul.
“The only problem that might have happened was if the tanks had been close enough that the shell melted or ruptured,” Root said. “They aren’t not pressurized.”
Root said the greater danger would be vandalism such as a person shooting the tanks with a high-powered rifle.
Officials from the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and FBI spent two days last week investigating the fire.