By ADAM BEAM
The State
At 9:17 a.m. Sept. 2, firefighter Misty Rucker was stuck on Whaley Street, looking at a train that wasnt moving.
On the other side of the tracks - she could see it but couldnt get to it - was an apartment building the dispatcher had told her was on fire.
Total frustration, said Rucker, an eight-year veteran of the Columbia Fire Department. We were sitting there looking at the building, and we couldnt do nothing because of the train.
Firefighters and emergency workers said they worry about what could happen if they get caught waiting too long for one of the slow-moving trains that pass through downtown Columbia.
The Sept. 2 call came in at 9:13 a.m. Had it not been for the train, the Olympia Fire Station truck would have arrived at the apartment complex at 9:17 a.m., Capt. Kevin Schmidt said.
Instead, it had to take a left on Sumter Street, a right on Wheat Street, a right on Pickens Street and then a right back onto Whaley Street. The truck didnt reach the apartment until 9:22 a.m.
It was a stove fire, easily contained.
The Columbia Fire Department has no written policy about what to do when a truck is stopped by a train, Chief Bradley Anderson said.
Instead, an informal policy has been handed down through generations of firefighters who have dealt with the issue: When stopped by a train, get on the radio and get another truck moving.
Its been one of those things that we have just done for so long that its ingrained in how we operate, Anderson said.
Firetrucks are stopped by trains three or four times per week, Anderson said.
Ambulances either wait out the short trains or find a way around the long trains, Richland County Emergency Services director Michael Byrd said.
Sometimes, shift supervisors decide to send another ambulance. Its not a good situation, Byrd said.
The Olympia Fire Station on Ferguson Street is surrounded by train tracks. At night, firefighters hear coal trains blaring their horns and creeping along the tracks.
But firefighters dont know when the trains are coming.
Rucker said having a schedule would help. That way, shed know which tracks were blocked and could take a detour.
Officials with Norfolk Southern, one of the companies that sends trains through Columbia, said they cant provide train schedules for emergency workers because the schedules change.
The work gets done when it needs to be done, spokesman Robin Chapman said. You cant predict with any accuracy when you are going to have a train.
No one has lost a house or a life because a firetruck was delayed by a train, Anderson said.
Multiple trucks from different stations respond to every structure fire, he said. Fire stations are close together downtown, so if one truck is held up, another can get to the scene just as quickly.
Railroad companies say they make an effort not to block the crossings but acknowledged it does happen.
We are conscious of that, of a need to keep those corridors open, Chapman said. And thats about all we can do.