Black oil tankers, one after another, stretch as far as the eye can see. They are common sights at the BNSF railyard in Whitefish these days.

On average, one trainload of crude oil per day is shipped west via the Hi-Line route through the steep canyons on the southern edge of Glacier Park, downtown Whitefish and along the shore of Whitefish Lake. 

A significant amount of that crude originates from the booming Bakken oil fields of North Dakota and Eastern Montana.

While BNSF says “99.99 percent” of its hazardous shipments are delivered without incident, there is growing concern about trains — sometimes 100 cars long — carrying the highly flammable Bakken crude on a stretch of line through Montana where derailments are all too common. 

In the past year there have been three fiery explosions involving trainloads of Bakken crude.

On Dec. 30 a train in North Dakota hauling 104 tank cars filled with Bakken crude exploded when it collided with a derailed train carrying grain. In November there was another fiery explosion involving Bakken crude in Alabama.

Most alarming was a derailment last summer in a small town in Quebec, Canada, that left 47 dead. The Bakken oil from that derailment burned for four days. It was Canada’s worst-ever railroad disaster.

“This stuff is more dangerous than typical oil,” Whitefish Fire Chief Tom Kennelly said of Bakken crude. “The flammability is different.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation said as much in a recent warning that says Bakken’s light, sweet crude oil may be different from traditional heavy crudes because it is prone to ignite at a lower temperature. Experts say lighter crudes — which contain more natural gas — have a much lower flash point.

The flash point is the lowest temperature at which a substance can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture in air.

Last fall firefighters from across Flathead County trained with BNSF crews in Whitefish, simulating a rail-car disaster that included Bakken crude.

“It was an eye opener,” Columbia Falls Fire Chief Rick Hagen said of the training.

“Bakken crude is closer to gasoline than to diesel fuel.” 

If a derailment occurs near Columbia Falls, Whitefish or along the edge of Glacier Park, the state of Montana, Flathead County and BNSF would take the lead in response and cleanup efforts, says Lincoln Chute, fire service area manager for the county’s Office of Emergency Services.

Both Chute and Hagen said if a tanker were to catch fire, the first order of business is not the flames — it’s to get people away from it. 

Hagen says in almost all cases it’s better to let a fire like that simply burn out. Putting out the flames would only allow more vapors to escape into the atmosphere uncontrolled — and uncontrolled vapors pose an even greater fire and health risk.

“The vapors are more dangerous than a fire,” Hagen said.

Following the recent North Dakota explosion, nearby residents were urged to evacuate due to a cloud of potentially toxic fumes. Residents within five miles of the explosion site were told to leave.

Kennelly said an evacuation might be challenging in the tourist town of Whitefish where the railroad runs right through the heart of downtown.

“A normal resident knows the railroad is there and they’d know to head down Highway 93,” Kennelly said. “But we have a lot of tourists and guests who don’t know that.”

Kennelly said a big concern is losing a tanker into Whitefish Lake, a situation that occurred  in 1989 when 20,000 gallons of fuel spilled into the Mackinaw Bay area.

“The worst thing would be an accident at the north end of the lake where you don’t have access and then you also have a wildfire,” Kennelly said. “These can build to be devastating events.” 

Kennelly said his department is far more prepared now than it was in the 1980s for a derailment around the lake.

“In the ’80s, we had to borrow a boom and search for boats,” he said. “The department has grown since then.”

“We are aware of where BNSF keeps their booms. We have three boats in our fleet and the hovercraft for winter.”

Access to the Two Bear rescue helicopter would be a significant help as well, Kennelly said.

“To be able to get up above scene, it’s a lot easier to see what’s happening,” he said.

He said the department is constantly studying and preparing to respond to hazardous spills.

“It’s always on our priorities,” he said. “There’s not one of us who doesn’t drive over the tracks and look down and see [the oil tankers] there.”

“The community has to know hazardous material is high on our training list. We have plans for it and we practice.”

Chute said training with BNSF and all the departments across the Flathead has built strong relationships over the years. First responders know each other well and know who to contact in the event of an emergency.

BNSF spokesman Matt Jones said the rail company provides response training to more than 3,000 emergency responders each year — including the hazardous training session last fall that included crews from Whitefish, Coram and Glacier Park.

The railroad company also has developed a site-specific response plan to be used by emergency responders in the corridor from Glacier Park to Whitefish. The plan currently is in draft form and is expected to be finalized in the next couple of months.

The threat of a derailment hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Park Service or the Forest Service. Both agencies say they continue to train with and offer support for local emergency services. In December, the agencies met with BNSF officials, Glacier Park spokeswoman Denise Germann said.

For many years, the agencies met on an annual basis along with other public interest groups in an organization called the Great Northern Environmental Stewardship Area.

Germann said there has been renewed interest in rejuvenating that group.

A large incident — say a spill into the lake or the river along with a fire — probably would be overseen by a professional federal incident management team such as those that oversee major wildfires, Hagen noted.

Derailments in the local BNSF corridor are not uncommon — especially along the stretch from Marias Pass to Bad Rock Canyon. 

The last derailment was this fall when five trains cars went off the tracks near Essex. 

Last winter, four BNSF locomotives and a car with three containers derailed as they pulled over on a siding near West Glacier. In March 2011, a freight train derailed near Essex and 19 cars left the tracks. Aerial photos from that incident show two tankers in the train were just a couple of links back from being tipped over.

Hagen said the tankers are built for safety but accidents can happen.

He said response to a tanker explosion like the one in North Dakota would be a major undertaking.

“It doesn’t matter how much you train,” Hagen noted. “It’s going to be a big disaster.”