Evacuation and shelter-in-place orders remain in effect in a northeastern Ohio town after a train derailment sparked a massive fire and concerns about air quality.
\nA Norfolk Southern train with more than 100 cars derailed in East Palestine, about 15 miles south of Youngstown, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
\nThere were 20 cars with hazardous material in the train \u2013 10 of which derailed. Of those 10, five were carrying vinyl chloride, the NTSB said Saturday night.
\n\u201cWe have not confirmed vinyl chloride has been released other than from the pressure release devices,\u201d the agency added.
\nNTSB board member Michael Graham said in a news conference earlier Saturday there was still an \u201cactive fire scene,\u201d and could not estimate when the flames would be put out.
\nThe cause of the derailment was not known Saturday.
\nInvestigators say the train had image and data recorders onboard. It will take four to six weeks for the NTSB to have a preliminary report on the accident, Graham said.
\nNo injuries were reported.
\nEPA: No harmful levels of compounds in air
\nOne car released some of the vinyl chloride through a safety release valve, Graham said. State environmental officials say they have not detected any harmful levels of the chemical in the community.
\nExposure with vinyl chloride, a colorless gas, is associated with a higher risk of certain forms of cancer, according to the federal government\u2019s National Cancer Institute.
\nNo harmful levels of compounds had been detected in the air as of Saturday evening, a spokesperson with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency told CNN in an email.
\n\u201cOhio EPA will remain on site and air monitors will remain in place as long as necessary,\u201d Ohio EPA spokesperson James Lee said in a statement. \u201cOhio EPA has established containment to help limit any damage to local streams and rivers from water runoff from the firefighting.\u201d
\nThe agency will work with local officials and the railroad company to \u201cidentify the nature and extent\u201d of any possible contamination and will work to ensure cleanup efforts to protect human health and the environment, Lee said.
\nEvacuation order remains in effect
\nOfficials issued a shelter-in-place order for the entire town of roughly 5,000 people, while an evacuation order was in effect within a mile of the train crossing at James Street as of early Saturday. Conaway said he did not know when those orders would be lifted.
\nTwo evacuation stations have opened to provide shelter to residents, and the Red Cross has been notified, Trent Conaway, the mayor of East Palestine said.
\nConaway on Saturday called for the \u201cexercise of all necessary emergency authority for protection of lives and the property of the residents of the Village of East Palestine, Ohio.\u201d
\nThe proclamation also called on citizens to comply with the emergency measures.
\nTraci Spratt, the interim manager of the village of East Palestine, said late Saturday the one-mile radius evacuation order from the incident remained in place \u201cuntil further notice,\u201d and stressed, \u201cWe need everyone to stay away from the scene.\u201d
\nSpratt also said officials were conducting \u201ccontinuous air monitoring and have found zero health risks.\u201d
\n\u201cThe village\u2019s drinking water is safe to drink and is being continually monitored,\u201d Spratt added.
\nPhotos from the scene showed a large, dense cloud of smoke engulfing flames atop the train. Firefighters from three states, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia responded, according to Conaway.
\nPennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Saturday he was briefed on the derailment and state authorities were \u201cprepared to help our neighbors.\u201d
\nThe Norfolk Southern train departed from Madison, Illinois, and was bound for Conway, Pennsylvania, when it derailed, according to the NTSB.
\nNorfolk Southern Railway said in a statement\u2002its team members were at the scene and added it was \u201ccoordinating with federal, state and local agencies.\u201d
\nThe company said it set up a family assistance center \u201cto address the needs of the community and support those directly impacted.\u201d
\n\u201cAdditionally, we are supporting the efforts of the American Red Cross and their temporary community shelters through a $25,000 donation,\u201d the company said.
\nCNN has reached out to Norfolk Southern for further comment.<\/p>\n
Cnn<\/p>\n
Tags\uff1bderailment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Evacuation and shelter-in-place orders remain in effect in a northeastern Ohio town after a train derailment sparked a massive fire and concerns about air quality. A Norfolk Southern train with more than 100 cars derailed in East Palestine, about 15 miles south of Youngstown, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. There were 20 cars with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[2254,2255,2253],"class_list":["post-5262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-derailment","tag-northeastern","tag-train"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5264,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5262\/revisions\/5264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}