Babylon holds LIRR Disaster Drill
by Chris Vaccaro

Emergency preparedness crews work during drill.

A simulated collision involving a diesel train and a box truck container at the Commack Road crossing of the Long Island Rail Road in Deer Park sparked the second Town of Babylon drill of the Homeland Security and Hazardous Materials Response Team.

Hosted by the Deer Park Fire Department on Oct. 28 on the side of P.C. Richard and Son, the drill called for simulated smoke conditions on one or more of the rail cars with unknown hazardous material release and allowed multiple response units to practice if this situation ever actually happened.

"The incident command was efficient, fast and did a great job in securing the area and removing any victims," said Long Island Rail Road assistant fire marshal Fred Loiacono. It was very well thought out and very well done."

There were 12 fire departments, two ambulance companies and approximately 20 pieces of emergency apparatus present at the three hour drill.

Using the National Incident Management System, first arriving Deer Park Fire Department initialized the incident command post, started a triage unit and staging area and called surrounding departments for mutual aid.

The first responding fire department, for this situation normally would follow a specific order of events, which includes locating the scene of the accident, determining if hazardous material is involved, contacting the Movement Bureau to request the necessary protection, set up the command post, triage unit and staging area and coordinating the activities of mutual aid fire departments.

Loiacono said the LIRR looks for these procedures to take place and the railroad workers are complying with similar standards.

"Overall, there was effective communication between the LIRR responding personnel and the incident command post," he said.

The ultimate goal is to gain access to the incident train, secure it, protect the individuals involved and confine any fires or hazardous situations.

In the exercise evaluation guide, a 14-page tutorial of how to manage every angle of the incident, it says the hazardous materials response and decontamination process also includes geographical survey searches of suspected sources of contamination spreads and establishes isolation perimeters to mitigate the effects of any harmful material.

With growing tensions rising every day in regard to terrorism both domestic and abroad, the act of practicing for such events can never hurt.

Deer Park's junior firefighters served as victims for the mock incident.

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