Nearly five dozen first responders from the Boston metro area were surrounding train cars at the former Quincy shipyard on Wednesday during a training exercise in the event of a train emergency.
SkyRanger spotted firefighters from cities like Quincy, Weymouth, and Cambridge getting ready for scenarios like a derailment.
Five freight train cars fell over in Ayer less than two weeks ago, with trash and recyclables spilling out onto the ground.
There was a derailment in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this year with hazardous materials onboard, threatening the lives of thousands of residents in that area.
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“You do look at that and say, ‘wow, you know, if it happened here, what would happen?’” Steven Hajjar, who owns a business near the training site, said.
Firefighters practiced with the equipment they would use to rescue a trapped victim or respond to a derailment, like torches and the jaws of life.
“It’s one thing to have the tools and see the videos and have classrooms, but it doesn’t really help until you get hands-on and get comfortable with doing something like this,” Quincy Fire Department Lt. Steven Chencharik said.
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Quincy Fire officials told NBC10 Boston they planned to hold more drills in the future, but no dates were set as of Wednesday.
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