WJLA
WASHINGTON — After last month’s deadly smoke incident on Metrorail at the L’Enfant Plaza station, there has been a lot of finger-pointing between WMATA and D.C. Fire officials. Now, the interim fire chief is promising changes after the firefighters union revealed that D.C.’s rank and file have received much less specialized training for Metro emergencies than other fire departments in the region.
WMATA’s Landover training site offers first responders courses in smoke and fire incidents, bomb blasts, terrorist and hostage situations, the release of chemical or biological agents, train collisions and other disasters. Now, the interim D.C. fire chief has acknowledged that less than half of the department’s firefighters have received training for such emergencies.
Last year, out of about 1700 D.C. firefighters, only 100 got that training in a mock Metrorail tunnel. That is far fewer than more than 700 Fairfax County firefighters and more than 400 Montgomery County firefighters who participated in 2014.
Full story: Less than half of D.C. firefighters have specialized Metro emergency training