The East Palestine fire chief told investigators probing a Norfolk Southern derailment that the railroad gave him 13 minutes to decide whether to vent and burn carloads of hazardous vinyl chloride, a timeline he said left him feeling “blindsided.â€
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The decision would change a serious derailment in early February into a national event that became the backdrop for weeks of culture war battles, generating apocalyptic images of thick black smoke spewing over the small Ohio community.
Fire Chief Keith Drabick said he was pulled from a meeting three days after the derailment to see Norfolk Southern chief executive Alan Shaw and contractors managing the response. Drabick was told they urgently wanted to get to work before the sun set.
“I was very overwhelmed by that approach,†Drabick told investigators, according to a transcript released Thursday.
Drabick’s new account was released as the National Transportation Safety Board began two days of hearings in East Palestine, questioning witnesses and sharing almost 5,000 pages of records.
The derailment was caused by an overheating wheel bearing on one of the train’s 149 cars. Dozens of cars came off the tracks including 11 that were carrying hazardous chemicals, starting a fire. Nearby residents were evacuated and still have questions about the effects on their health.
The emergency response faced trouble almost immediately, according to the records and testimony. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy questioned Norfolk Southern about why it took several hours to turn over records to firefighters of what was on the train.
Faulty modeling misled the governor of Ohio about the risks of venting and burning the vinyl chloride. And new accounts from experts at chemical company Oxy Vinyls, which was shipping the vinyl chloride, call into question the decision to vent the gas.
The company was not directly involved in the plan to vent tank cars carrying the chemical. But executives briefed Norfolk Southern’s hazmat contractor, Specialized Professional Services, over the weekend after the Friday night derailment while saying that despite the fear of crews on the ground, it did not think a dangerous reaction known as polymerization was taking place inside the tanks. ■