TRAIN DISASTERS TEST THE FIRE SERVICE TRAGEDY ON THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS

摘要

On monday, march 15,1999, on a set of tracks owned by the Illinois Central Railroad, Amtrak #59, the famed City of New Orleans, reportedly traveling at 79 miles per hours slammed into a flatbed semitrailer. The accident occurred in an area of houses, farms, and fields in unincorporated Bourbonnais Township, Illinois, about three miles north of Kankakee, which is some 50 miles south of Chicago. The Kankakee County Sheriff's Department received the first calls reporting the accident at 2147 hours. Workers at the nearby Birmingham Steel plant, who had heard the crash and called 911, rushed outside to investigate. At the same time, telephone consoles in dispatch centers at the nearby Bourbonnais and Bradley Police Departments began lighting up with calls reporting the accident. Initial reports were sketchy. It was only after the first police officers arrived that the magnitude of the incident would begin to unfold. By the end of the night, more than 60 fire and EMS agencies would combine forces to bring 338 personnel and 106 pieces of equipment to the scene. Eventually, 11 people would be confirmed dead and another 122 injured, including one firefighter.