NTSB says tank cars didn’t need to be blown open to release chemical after East Palestine derailment

WASHINGTON – The head of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress Wednesday that the decision to blow open five tank cars and burn the toxic chemical inside them three days after a Norfolk Southern train derailed in eastern Ohio last year wasn’t justified.

But NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the key decision-makers who feared those tank cars were going to explode never had all the information they needed.

FILE – This image take from drone video taken by the Columbiana County Commissioner’s Office and released by the NTSB shows towering flames and columns of smoke resulting from a “vent and burn” operation following the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 6, 2023. The head of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress Wednesday, March 6, 2024, that decision to blow open five tank cars and burn the toxic chemical inside them three days after a Norfolk Southern train derailed in Eastern Ohio last year wasn’t justified. But NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the key decision makers who feared those tank cars were going to explode never had all the information they needed. (Columbiana County Commissioner’s Office/NTSB via AP, File)

The opinion of the experts at Oxy Vinyls that no dangerous chemical reaction was happening inside the vinyl chloride cars was never relayed to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the first responders in charge.

The vinyl chloride released that day, combined with all the other chemicals that spilled and caught fire after the derailment in East Palestine have left residents with lingering fears about possible long-term health consequences.

Homendy’s comments Wednesday were the clearest yet that the controversial vent-and-burn action wasn’t needed. But the agency won’t release its final report on what caused the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment until it holds another hearing this June.

DeWine’s spokesperson Dan Tierney said it’s frustrating to hear now — more than a year after the derailment — that it wasn’t necessary to blow open those tank cars.

“The only two scenarios that were ever brought up were a catastrophic explosion occurring, where shrapnel would be thrust in all directions to a one mile radius or averting that through a controlled vent and burn,” Tierney said. “Nobody ever brought up a scenario where if you just did nothing, it wouldn’t explode.”

East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick has said the consensus in the command center was that releasing and burning the chemicals was the “least bad option.”

But Homendy said they never heard Oxy Vinyls’ opinion that the vinyl chloride was stable. Instead, the decision-makers relied on contractors who were alarmed by the limited temperature readings they were able to get, combined with the violent way one of the tank cars released vinyl chloride with a roar from a pressure release valve after hours of calm.

Norfolk Southern defended the decision again Wednesday and said the plan had nothing to do with trying to get the trains moving again more quickly.