IAFF Members Respond to Deadly Train Collision

June 22, 2009 – More than 200 fire fighters from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia responded to a deadly Metro train collision that killed nine people and injured scores of others, including two fire fighters. One Metro transit train smashed into the rear of another during the Monday rush hour. Cars of both trains were ripped open and smashed together, and a District of Columbia fire spokesperson said crews had to cut some people out of what he described as a "mass casualty event." Rescue workers treated 70 people at the scene.

IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger has spoken with Local 36 President Ray Snead and with DC Fire Chief Dennis Rubin regarding our members efforts at this incident. He has offered the assistance of the IAFF -- and both have accepted -- to make an assessment of the potential short- and long-term behavioral health issues among our responding members.

“Our immediate thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who were killed and those who were injured in this tragic accident in our Nation’s Capital," Schaitberger says. "We now have to look at and address the effects on our members who just did their job on Monday night.”

Officials have no explanation for the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board took charge of the investigation and sent a team to the site of the worst accident in the Metro system's 33-year history.

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