Fire Chief Doug Wehmeyer said a stalled train turned a 30-second response into seven minutes, a long-standing problem in Lockland

By Cliff Pinckard
cleveland.com

LOCKLAND, Ohio — A woman died Sunday morning in a house fire in a Cincinnati suburb and fire officials said their response was delayed because of a train stopped at a rail crossing.

Fire Chief Doug Wehmeyer told WXIX Channel 19 that the detour caused by the Norfolk Southern train added several minutes to the time it took to get to the home.

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Reading Fire Department arrived at the scene first and pulled an elderly woman from a bedroom in the home, WCPO Channel 9 reports. The woman died at a hospital.

“Seconds matter in every fire we respond to,” Wehmeyer said, according to WLWT Channel 5. “So in the situation today, the first company that arrived on scene because of the delay was Reading. They encountered structural deficits as a result of the fire that prevented them from going the normal way into the bedroom that the victim was located.”

Wehmeyer said it took seven minutes to reach the home when it normally would have taken about 30 seconds.

According to WLWT, Wehmeyer said delays at the train crossing have been an ongoing problem.

“What’s it going to take? You have a fire where a building burns up because of it. You have a police officer who needs assistance that can’t get it because of it,” Wehmeyer said to WXIX. “I can’t contribute this death directly to that train being there, but you have firefighters searching a house for a known victim inside the house that are delayed because a train is blocking the (crossing).”

A spokesperson for Norfolk Southern said the company is “in communication” with Lockland officials and is reviewing the incident.

“We recognize residents’ concerns, particularly regarding access for emergency responders,” the spokesperson told WXIX. “Norfolk Southern makes every effort to avoid affecting communities with a stopped train. Our goal is to keep our trains moving safely across our entire 19,200-mile network.”

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