Ohio Train Derailment: Residents turned away due to toxic gas monitoring.Ohio

It is not known when the evacuated residents will be able to return to official residences. Release and combustion of toxic chemicals From the wreckage of the derailed train, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Tuesday.

Residents near the site in Eastern Palestine, near the Pennsylvania border, have been ordered to evacuate due to the danger of death or serious injury from the toxic fumes. Flames and black smoke billowed into the sky on Monday night as crew members set PVC on fire from five derailed tank trucks that were at risk of explosion.

DeWine told Fox & Friends Tuesday morning that authorities are closely monitoring air quality outside the surrounding area and that it is “very good so far.” Ohio National Guard personnel in protective gear are expected to be sent to an area close to the scene, equipped with sensors to check the air.

Residents of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, just outside and adjacent to the Eastern Palestinian Evacuation Zone, were urged to stay indoors as a precaution.

Authorities believed most, if not all, of the residents of the danger zone had left. DeWine said he drove through the area three times trying to get people out before they released the vinyl chloride.

Officials warned that controlled combustion would send phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air. .

Releasing during the day allowed the smoke to disperse more quickly, preventing railcars from exploding and sending shrapnel and other debris into the neighborhood, said Scott Deutsch of rail operator Norfolk Southern Railway. I’m here.

“You can’t control where it goes,” he said.

The process uses a small amount of explosive to puncture the car, entrench the material, and burn it before it is released into the atmosphere, he said. Deutsch said crew members doing controlled releases had done so safely before.

About three hours after the procedure, Norfolk Southern released a statement saying experts and first responders had breached the railcar, chemicals had burned off, and the car was expected to drain for several more hours. .

This location is very close to the state line, and the evacuation zone spans a sparsely populated area of ​​Pennsylvania. About half of her 4,800 residents in eastern Palestine had been warned to vacate over the weekend before authorities decided to use controlled releases on Monday.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the evacuation zone included about 20 Pennsylvania homes, and residents within a mile (1.6km) of the controlled burns were said to have left.

Approximately 50 vehicles, including 10 dangerous goods vehicles derailed in a violent crash on Friday At night while traveling from Madison, Illinois to Conway, Pennsylvania, according to Norfolk Southern and the National Transportation Safety Board. No injuries to crew, occupants, or first responders have been reported.

Federal investigators say a mechanical problem with the rail car’s axle was responsible for the derailment.

According to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute, the five derailed cars were used to make plastic products’ polyvinyl chloride hard plastic resin, which has been linked to an increased risk of liver and other cancers. was being transported.

Mandatory evacuations began Sunday night after authorities warned rail cars could explode after observing “dramatic temperature changes” in one vehicle.