The Graniteville Train Disaster:

How Accreditation Shaped Public Safety Response
Peter N. Frommer, Director, Aiken (SC) Department of Public Safety

[Editorial Note: The lead agency for the Graniteville Train Disaster was the Aiken County Sheriff's Department, under the direction of Sheriff Michael E. Hunt. They will be presented for their initial accreditation review at the CALEA Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, July 27-30, 2005. Besides the Aiken Department of Public Safety, which has been CALEA Accredited since 1998, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, CALEA Accredited since 1994, was also a participating responder. The strength of the cooperation and well-defined relationships among all the agencies involved was a conspicuous factor in the public safety response to this tragedy.]

On January 6, 2005 in the small mill town of Graniteville in Aiken County, South Carolina, a Norfolk Southern train carrying 45 cars was heading north on the mainline track and accidentally veered toward a side spur, colliding head-on with a stationary train. The collision, which took place at 2:45 AM, caused 14 railroad cars to derail upon impact, four of which were tankard cars filled with chlorine gas.

One of the tankard cars was severed in half, causing an abrupt release of 90 tons of gas into the atmosphere. A second car ruptured from a large gash in its side and continued to leak for approximately three days, until repair crews could fabricate a patch to cover the hole. Two other chlorine tankard cars lay damaged in the rubble of the wreckage.

Most townspeople were asleep when the sound of the collision and the strange smell of the chlorine gas reached their homes. Getting residents to safety would be a challenge for many hours to follow. Within minutes of the crash, 9-1-1 operators received hundreds of calls for help from frantic people suffocating by poisonous gas.

As the responders rushed to the scene they encountered pickup trucks overloaded with frightened residents, many of who were suffering with respiratory distress or failure, trying to escape the fumes. From phone calls and radio communications, incident commanders quickly realized some of the people fleeing the gas in the darkness did not realize the location of the accident and were blindly running into the contaminated area instead of away from it.

A decision was made to send a reverse 9-1-1 message instructing residents to cut off heating systems, place wet blankets around doors and windows, and to remain in their homes. Incident commanders also realized immediately that the media would play a big role in getting proper instructions to the residents. The media was instructed to directly report to the staging area to begin live newscasts to provide information on the accident and proper instructions in an effort to evacuate residents of Graniteville and the surrounding areas, and to address the necessary safety precautions.

Command staff from the Aiken County Sheriff’s Department at once realized the magnitude of the incident, and began calling for mutual aid from surrounding agencies, along with state and federal agencies, for assistance. Within the first hour, over 15 surrounding law enforcement agencies were working with local authorities to rescue survivors and secure a two-mile evacuation zone. Before the conclusion of the incident, which lasted more than 10 days, over 110 federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement, hazmat, and EMS agencies, as well as the Federal Railroad Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, Homeland Security, and the National Environmental Protection Agency had assisted with the disaster.

During the first several hours, 9-1-1 operators continued to notify incident commanders of phone calls from residents in the immediate hot zone, pleading for rescue from the concentrated gas. Local hazmat and law enforcement officers dressed in Personal Protective Gear with self-contained breathing apparatus, worked steadily to make these rescues. Likewise, EMS and fire personnel developed and implemented plans to provide medical care and decontamination efforts for persons fleeing the immediate hot zone. Area hospitals received over 500 patients, most in some stages of respiratory distress. Several victims were dead on arrival at a local hospital that was located approximately two and a half miles from the derailment.

As the day progressed, officials identified the cargo, monitored gas concentration levels and plume direction, adjusted evacuation zones as needed, and set up shelters for over 5,000 residents who would be displaced from their homes. They developed a plan to rescue the residents who had been instructed to shelter in place, and implemented a plan to account for all residents and workers from a fabric mill in close proximity to the crash site. A plan was instituted to safely patrol the effected area and provide the hazmat team and railroad officials with photographs and videos of the crash site, and to assist in devising a way to patch the leaking car. Also implemented was a plan to develop procedures to properly recover the bodies of the dead.

In the following days, a Unified Command Center was set up in a vacant building within sight of the staging area. Each agency provided one representative to the Command Center. Goals and objectives were set in preparation for the many actions which would be needed over the coming days to investigate the scene, remove the damaged cars safely, clean the contaminated area, and develop a plan which would allow residents back into the evacuated area once the area was declared safe. This re-entry plan was implemented on the ninth day when residents on the outer evacuation zone were allowed to return to their homes.

During the entire event, incident commanders continued regular news briefings and held nightly town meetings at a nearby university for those directly affected by the event. They also implemented pet retrieval plans, developed home inspection procedures, briefed school officials concerning work needed to open two schools in the evacuation zone, and worked with local utility companies to inspect and repair equipment damaged from the chlorine gas.

To date, nine people have died as a result of this tragic train derailment. If the responders had not been prepared, it is likely many more residents would have lost their lives. The overall success in handling this disaster is greatly attributed to the relationships that the area emergency responders have developed. As a CALEA Accredited law enforcement agency, the Aiken Department of Public Safety had planned ahead for such an unusual occurrence and was fully prepared to respond, as were the other CALEA Accredited agencies involved in the disaster.

In accordance with CALEA Law Enforcement Accreditation standard 2.1.3, mutual aid agreements were in place; and as required in Chapter 46 (Unusual Occurrences and Special Operations) of the standards manual, we had a written Emergency Operation Plan (EOP) for natural and man-made disasters, which is reviewed and updated regularly, already available for immediate implementation. Compliance with standards also meant the equipment designated for disasters was available and had been inspected for readiness, and that area responders had yearly trained for such disasters.

Additionally, the area law enforcement agencies have developed a strong working relationship with the area media groups, also in accordance with the standards in Chapter 54 (Public Information). In this emergency, the area law enforcement agencies were able to rely on their pre-established relationships with the media to aid in controlling the situation and keeping townspeople informed.  

The Graniteville Train Disaster has had a lasting affect on the citizens of the area and on many of the personnel from the public safety agencies involved. Thanks to being accredited, the men and women of the Aiken Department of Public Safety were well prepared and demonstrated the highest levels of professionalism in their response to this terrible disaster.