Grand Forks Public Safety Training Center Expansion
First Responders Prepare For Oil Train Disasters
Sorry, this video is no longer available
Senator Heidi Heitkamp and Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are working to get first responders trained to deal with oil train disasters.
They toured a training facility in Grand Forks this afternoon.
It started out as just an idea inspired by a one–of–a–kind federal training facility in Pueblo, CO but now the city of Grand Forks wants to bring the concept home.
Grand Forks Fire Chief Peter O’Neill says, “Add up to 20–25 acres that would be dedicated to placing a train derailment that could be built with props, simulate fire and where we could go and actually put our hands on that derailment and train with that.”
Last year, Senator Heitkamp helped secure $5–million in funding to prepare first responders for crude oil train emergencies. 70 North Dakota first responders took part.
Heitkamp says, “Ever since the explosion in Casselton and actually thinking about Lac–Megantic train explosion, it’s hard to not say “what if” as you understand and appreciate how many trains actually come through North Dakota.”
Heitkamp brought Deputy Mayorkas to Grand Forks to see first hand the challenges in public safety that small and rural communities face.
Mayorkas says, “They don’t have the capacity to travel miles and miles for training that takes them away from their day–to–day jobs and so the question is how to do we deliver this service to them.”
The Grand Forks Public Safety Training Center expansion is a continuation of the “Strong & Safe Communities Initiative” to ensure first responders have the training and resources to do their jobs.
Grand Forks Fire Station believes that this expansion is something the surround communities can take advantage of.
O’Neill adds, “Canada would take advantage of it. All of our bordering states would take advantage. I have all the confidence in the world that if we build it they will come.”
Tomorrow, Heitkamp and Mayorkas will visit the new border patrol facility that’s being built in Pembina.
