 Many hazardous materials travel across the state on the railroad but what happens in the event of a chemical spill or derailment? Today first responders received hands-on training in these scenarios. Sarah Winkelman has more. It's a day where first responders from all across the state come together with one common goal. It's about being prepared for any scenario. We talk about an all-hazards approach. In our instance today we worked this morning on an incident involving an hydrosammonia which is a common farm fertilizer. Today we're working on chlorine which is an essential product in purifying drinking water among many other purposes. The yellow placard on the side of the train car shows what chemical is inside. Now the CAT team is heading up to determine where the smoke's coming from. The best part of all this training is we get to work with guys from the other teams across the state and get familiar with them and we do not do a lot of training with them. We usually do a lot of training inside our own city so it's really good to get to know and see other people that we might see on a big incident like this. Members from the railroad emergency response teams, the chemical assessment teams, and the local fire departments all work together to create the best possible outcome if a situation did arise. When it comes to railroads transporting hazardous materials, 99.99% of those arrive at their destination without a release caused by a train incident. It's a very safe way to move hazardous materials over land. Nine of the 11 chemical assessment teams throughout the state participated in today's simulation. We've done over 200 local fire departments throughout the state. We've been to all 87 counties in some form or another to do training so that they can have an awareness level and now what we're doing here is we're taking the next step. By putting everything into action through positive collaboration. So they all get you know the same training, they're using the same equipment but now we're kind of intermingling the teams so they're not working with their own team members, they're working with other teams and it's working all very well. A training this size is the first of its kind in Minnesota. Reporting in Camp Ripley, Sarah Winkleman, Lakeland News. The training center at Camp Ripley will continue to grow to accommodate more complex scenarios. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.