For the very first time, the Saskatoon Fire Department is hosting the Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response or TRANSCAER training event.

Assistant Fire Chief Anthony Tataryn says the three-day event is focused on road and railway related emergency responses, especially when the transport of dangerous goods is involved.

“There is a specially made railcar that is purpose built to show first responders exactly how to shut off valves and secure scenes for train derailments.”

Tataryn says participants will also learn what to do if a train or truck transporting dangerous goods is compromised.

“We’re actually having a demonstration on how the rail industry disposes of dangerous goods when they can’t be offloaded by car. They have what they call a flare, and they burn off the product so there’s limited environmental impact,” he explains. “So, people in the area can expect to see a flame that might be as tall as 30 feet into the sky.”

That takes place tomorrow between 2 and 4pm at the SFD Regional Training Facility in Corman Park.

“It’s important that we have an opportunity to build these relationships in training events so should an incident happen, we’re not meeting on the side of the road for the first time trying to figure out what each other’s capabilities are.”

Tataryn says Saskatoon has been lucky, as there have not been many train derailments or transportation truck incidents in the past, but it’s best to be prepared.