A tangle of dozens of derailed freight cars, some carrying hazardous materials, has kept an evacuation order in effect in Ohio near the Pennsylvania state line as environmental authorities alertly watch air quality monitors.
About 50 cars derailed in East Palestine about 9 p.m. Friday as the train was carrying a variety of products from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, rail operator Norfolk Southern said. No injuries to crew, residents or first responders were reported.
East Palestinian officials said Sunday that emergency responders were monitoring but keeping their distance from the fire, saying remediation efforts could not begin as long as the cars were burning. The evacuation included a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) radius, officials said.
Mayor Trent Conaway, who declared a state of emergency in the village, said a man was arrested for surrounding the barricade leading up to the crash last night. He warned that more arrests would be made if people did not leave.
“I don’t know why anyone would want to go up there; you’re breathing toxic fumes if you’re too close,” he said, stressing that air quality monitors far from the fire show no level of concern and that the city’s water is safe because it’s supplied by groundwater that doesn’t affected by some missing ingredients. to the streams. Environmental protection agencies work to remove contaminants from streams and monitor water quality.
Fire Chief Keith Drrabick said it was important to avoid the area “because a train carrying hazardous materials broke down in the city and caught fire. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.”
The sheriff opened the doors Sunday to count the remaining residents and asked people in the evacuation zone to leave. “We ask residents to evacuate and cooperate,” officials said in a statement. Schools and village offices will be closed Monday and officials will determine later that evening if school closures will be extended. Businesses in the evacuation zone were not allowed to open Monday, officials said.
Norfolk Southern said 20 of its more than 100 cars were classified as carrying hazardous materials — defined as cargo that could pose any hazard “including flammable, combustible, or environmental risks.” Some cars carry vinyl chloride, and at least one “intermittently releases” its contents through a pressure release device.
Officials said on Sunday afternoon that the car involved was also carrying flammable liquids, butyl acrylate and benzene residues from previous shipments as well as non-hazardous materials such as grain, plastic pellets, malt liquor and lubricating oil.
“Short-term exposure to low levels of substances associated with derailment does not pose a long-term health risk to residents,” said a “Frequently Asked Questions” post on the village’s Facebook page. “Vinyl chloride and benzene can cause cancer in people exposed in the workplace at high concentrations for many years; however, there is no indication that any potential exposure that occurs after the derailment increases the risk of cancer or other long-term health effects in members of the public.
The National Transportation Safety Board said only 10 cars carrying hazardous materials derailed and five carried vinyl chloride, not 14 as previously reported. And officials stressed again last Friday that they have not confirmed the release of vinyl chloride other than the pressure release device operating as designed.
Vinyl chloride, which is used to make the hard plastic resin polyvinyl chloride in many plastic products, is associated with an increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute. Norfolk Southern provides a fact sheet listing all of the chemicals involved.
The evacuation order covers 1,500 to 2,000 homes of the city’s 4,800 to 4,900 residents, but officials said it was unclear exactly how many were affected. About eight residents remain in emergency shelters. Norfolk Southern opened an assistance center in the village to gather information from affected residents; village officials said 75 people went to the center on Friday and about 100 were there on Sunday morning.
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