
Treasure Coast Advertising Service
Train accidents and hazardous material were the subjects of a presentation Tuesday in Stuart.
A proposal to transport liquefied natural gas on the same railways as passengers could put many area residents in danger.
The fire and rescue department presented their findings, and the chief asked for more training because an LNG blast could be an emergency his crews are not equipped to handle.
Liquefied natural gas is regularly transported on trucks ships and trains, but never on the same tracks as high-speed trains.
Commissioners were told, an odorless cloud of the LNG could escape the specialized extreme cold container cars, drift for miles, and then the radius of the danger zone would be hard or impossible to ascertain.
A big point of contention on this issue has been how Florida East Coast Railway’s isn’t required by law to disclose the contents a train is carrying, but company executives say they will let a town know when a load has LNG.