Speaker 1 (00:00):
A major investigation and massive cleanup underway in East Palestine, just across the state line from Beaver County. 50 trained cars derailed, first sparking a massive fire and evacuations. Now the concerns shift to the chemicals in several of those cars. Katy KDKA's Chris DeRose has been following this story since early Saturday morning. He joins us live now with what we need to know.
Chris DeRose (00:27): Shelly, good morning. Yeah, it's been an almost unimaginable morning for the residents of East Palestine, Ohio. For the last 48 hours, they've been dealing with roughly 50 train cars that derailed, and 20 of which were carrying hazardous materials that caught on fire. Now, this all happened just before 9:00 PM on Friday. A Norfolk southern train of 141 cars was traveling from Madison, Illinois to Conway, PA with at least 20 cars containing hazardous materials, one of which was the chemical vinyl chloride, which is a colorless gas that burns easily. At this time, it's not certain how the train derailed or how the fire started, but the response to the scene prompted nearly 70 different emergency units from a tri-state area. (01:14) On Saturday morning, a state of emergency was declared for the village of nearly 5,000 people and residents in a one-mile radius of the crash were forced to evacuate to shelters. Now, the NTSB has been on scene since Saturday, and in a press conference they held yesterday evening, they said that they're working to figure out how the train derailed. And they said that the safety features on the tanker cars carrying the toxic chemicals are working as they should to prevent an explosion.
Michael Graham (01:43): We are aware one of the cars is releasing some of its pressure, and that is normal. That's how that car is designed to keep it from exploding or anything like that.
Chris DeRose (01:57): Now the EPA is also on scene and they are monitoring air quality, and as of this morning, they're reporting that the air quality in the village is still safe, and the mayor and village officials are imploring residents to stay off the streets and away from the scene to give crews the space they need to work. And there is another press conference slated to happen today in East Palestine, Ohio. We, of course, will be there and we will be bringing you more both on air and online. For now, reporting on Pittsburgh's North Shore, Chris DeRose, KDKA News.