Deliberate toxic burn following Norfolk Southern derailment was not necessary, safety regulator testifies

A massive controlled burn that sent toxic chemicals into the air of East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023 was not necessary, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board testified at a Senate hearing Wednesday.

A massive controlled burn that sent toxic chemicals into the air of East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023 was not necessary, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board testified at a Senate hearing Wednesday. Under questioning from Sen. J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy agreed with the senator that evidence gathered since the incident showed the controlled burn of five railroad tank cars full of vinyl chloride was the wrong decision because the temperature in one tank car was coming down, the other four were all less than 70 degrees and there was no risk of explosion. On February 3, 2023 a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, a small town near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, sending more than a million pounds of hazardous chemicals into the soil, water and air. Residents were ordered to evacuate temporarily and while state and federal environmental officials say testing shows the air and water in the town is now safe, some residents still complain of health symptoms such as burning sensations in their eyes, tingling in their lips, heaviness in their chest and swelling of lymph nodes in their neck and groin. When the controlled burn of the toxic chemicals was executed, three days after the derailment, it was announced it was because there was an imminent risk of an uncontrolled explosion if the chemicals were not released and burned off. The officials on the ground who authorized the controlled burn were told they had only minutes to make the decision before an explosion. But Homendy said there was no scientific basis for the controlled burn. “There was another option: let it cool down,” she said. “It was cooling down.”