Railroads work to make sure firefighters can quickly look up what is on a train after a derailment

By JOSH FUNK
Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The railroad industry is trying to make sure that emergency responders can quickly look up what is on a train quickly when they respond to a derailment. In the chaos after a Norfolk Southern train derailed and caught fire in eastern Ohio in February, firefighters couldn’t find that information for roughly 45 minutes. The railroads are now making the AskRail app they developed for firefighters available to emergency dispatch centers. The industry has also made that train information available through the chemical industry hotlines that first responders call to get advice on how to deal with specific chemicals. So the AskRail information that 40,000 users had signed up for by the end of last year is now available to more than 2 million first responders.