City Of Bingen receiving fire response trailer from BNSF

Bingen City Council members unanimously passed a motion last Tuesday, authorizing Mayor Betty Barnes to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for use, storage, and maintenance of a Fire Response Trailer owned by BNSF. Bingen City Council member Isolde Schroder phoned in for the meeting.

The fire trailer will be provided free of cost to Bingen, and will be available for bi-state use in Oregon and Washington. All fire departments and districts within the Columbia River Gorge will have access to the trailer if the need arises.

The current plan is to house the Fire Response Trailer in a heated garage at the city’s sewer plant located on the south side of the train tracks.

“I think this is a big plus for the area, to have this available and available for all of us to use,” said Mayor Barnes during last week’s city council meeting.

Barnes told city council members that the MoU came up when talking to a BNSF representative about the city’s oil train derailment concerns.

“They asked me if there was anything they could do for us,” Barnes explained, “and I said ‘well in your statements you say that you have foam trailers in Vancouver and Wishram, what would you think if we asked you to station one in the middle of the Gorge?’” Barnes’ request became a reality last Wednesday when BNSF officially signed off on the deal.

It will be available to all the fire departments to use for other things besides train derailments or train incidents,” explained Barnes. “They’ll be able to use it for, like if they need it for a car accident and so forth.”

The railroad company will replenish the foam if the fire trailer is used for any sort of railway event, explained Barnes, but if it’s used to control anything outside of the railroad the district that last used it is responsible for refilling the trailer’s foam supply.

City Administrator Jan Brending said the city will plan on restocking the fire trailer’s foam, when used outside of a railway incident, then bill the third party for the used foam. “Then that way we know that it’s not waiting on somebody,” explained Brending.

The foam used and stored in the fire trailer will be the most environmentally conscious formula available, Barnes added after some concerns over pollution were raised.

A few council members questioned whether the garage storage space for the fire trailer would be the best spot, explaining that access to the south side of the tracks could be limited in the event of a train derailment.

Barnes told council members, “If the sewer plant was too close, then the city hall would be too close.” Barnes continued by adding the space was currently available, easy to access, and is heated. “It’s short term, at least for now,” noted Brending.

“I’m very excited about this; I think it’s a really good thing for the region,” said Barnes.