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Environmental Disaster as Toxic Chemicals Leak from Derailed Tankers
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) – Crews began releasing toxic chemicals into the air from five derailed tank trucks that threatened to explode Monday after warning residents near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line to leave immediately or to avoid the possibility of the face death.
Flames and black smoke rose high into the sky from the site of the derailment in the late afternoon, about an hour after authorities announced the controlled release would begin. The Ohio Emergency Management Agency confirmed the release was underway.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine previously ordered evacuations in the area of the derailment, which has been smoldering since Friday night. Authorities believe most if not all residents of the danger zone had left, but they knocked on doors again before releasing the vinyl chloride in the cars, he said.
“You have to go, you just have to go. It’s a matter of life and death,” DeWine said at the press conference.
Officials warned that controlled burning would release phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air. Phosgene is a highly toxic gas that can cause vomiting and breathing difficulties and was used as a weapon in World War I.
Scott Deutsch of the Norfolk Southern Railway said doing this during the day would allow the fumes to disperse more quickly, preventing the railroad cars from exploding and splinters and other debris flying around the neighborhood.
“We can’t control where that goes,” said Deutsch, who estimated the release would take one to three hours.
The process involves using a small charge to blast a hole in the cars, allowing the material to enter a ditch and burn off before being released into the air, he said. The crews handling the controlled release have done so safely before, Deutsch said.
The site is very close to the state line and the evacuation area extends into a sparsely populated area of Pennsylvania. About half of eastern Palestine’s 4,800 residents had been warned to leave the country over the weekend before officials decided Monday to use the controlled release.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the evacuation zone includes about 20 Pennsylvania homes. Pennsylvania State Police went door to door to help the last remaining residents and make sure they left.
“This is very serious,” he said. “I want you to know that if I were there now, if the First Lady and our children were there now, we would evacuate. We would leave this area. It may be too dangerous.”
Forced evacuations began in the village of East Palestine on Sunday night after authorities were alarmed that the train cars could explode after a “drastic change in temperature” was observed inside a train car.
Local residents packed holdalls, loaded their pets into cars and searched for hotel rooms Monday morning. Village police abandoned their communications center as the threat of an explosion increased.
Police cars, snow plows and Ohio National Guard military vehicles blocked roads leading into the area.
About 50 cars derailed in a fire accident Friday night, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, according to rail operator Norfolk Southern and the National Transportation Safety Board. No injuries were reported to crew, local residents, or first responders.
Five transported vinyl chloride, which is used to make the hard plastic resin polyvinyl chloride in plastic products and has been linked to an increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute
Federal investigators say the cause of the derailment was a mechanical problem with the axle of a rail vehicle.
The train crew of three received a warning about the mechanical failure “just before the derailment,” NTSB board member Michael Graham said on Sunday. Investigators identified the exact “point of the derailment,” but the board was still working to determine which rail vehicle had the axle problem, he said.
Mayor Trent Conaway, who declared a state of emergency in the village, said one person was arrested for bypassing barricades before crashing. He warned people to stay away, saying they risked arrest.
“I don’t know why anyone would want to be up there; You breathe in toxic fumes when you’re that close,” he said.
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This story has been corrected to show that the evacuation zone includes approximately 20 Pennsylvania homes, no residents
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press journalists Kantele Franko, Gene Puskar, and Brooke Schultz in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania contributed. Schultz is a corps member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover undercover topics.
Patrick Orsagos and John Seewer, The Associated Press
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