The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) recently received a $50,000 grant from the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to bolster their ethanol safety training program.
“We are pleased to partner with RFA again through a second ALERT grant,” John Woulfe, assistant director of Programs and Technology for the International Association of Fire Chiefs, said. “Training is critical to ensure the safety of first responders and communities. RFA’s ethanol safety training program has done a great job of educating emergency personnel on how to effectively respond to hazmat incidents. We look forward to another successful year of RFA ethanol training events.”
Several partners were included in the grant, which goes to provide hazmat training for volunteer or remote emergency responders in managing emergency situations related to the transportation of ethanol, crude and other flammable liquids by rail. The grant is called the Assistance for Local Emergency Response Training (ALERT) Grant and in total will help provide 10 ethanol safety seminars over the course of September 2018. Under the umbrella of hazmat rail safety training, the seminars will cover such things as chemical and physical characteristics of ethanol and hydrocarbon fuels, transportation and transfer of materials, firefighting foam principles, and general health and safety.
The program has been funded in part by such grants since 2010.