WASHINGTON, D.C. — New information from a U.S. Senate committee reveals the controlled burn may not have been necessary after a toxic train derailment in East Palestine last year.
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NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy answered questions by Senator JD Vance in Washington today during the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
Vance asked Homendy about what he called extraordinary findings by the NTSB.
Vance said he was told there were two bad options: a controlled burn or an uncontrolled explosion.
The incident commander, East Palestine’s fire chief, had less than 13 minutes to make a decision.
Homendy said the fire chief and Governor DeWine were given incomplete information.
“There was another option: let it cool down. It was cooling down. We know for a fact that when that pressure release device went off that it had to have been above 185 degrees much later over the course of 22 hours that the tank car was cooling,” Homendy said.
Homenday went on to say the other four cars carrying vinyl chloride had temperatures between 64 and 69 degrees.
Holes were cut in all five cars to release and burn the chemicals, creating a plume of smoke over the village.
Homendy said the chemical shipper was on site and gave information to Norfolk Southern and its contractors that there was no justification for a vent and burn.
But Homendy said they were left out of the room when the decision was made.
The fire chief told News 5 Investigators earlier this year he stands by his decisions and last year said the vent and burn decision was made through a consensus with the information they had.
Norfolk Southern sent us this statement about Wednesday's testimony by Homendy:
The final decision to conduct a controlled release was made by the Incident Commander, with input from multiple stakeholders, including Norfolk Southern and local, state and federal authorities. The top priority of everyone involved was the safety of the community, as well as limiting the impact of the incident. The successful controlled release prevented a potentially catastrophic uncontrolled explosion that could have caused significant damage for the community. To date, continuous environmental testing in coordination with and alongside U.S. and Ohio EPA has shown the air and drinking water in the community are safe.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine released the following statement:
NTSB Chair Homendy testified yesterday that neither Governor DeWine nor incident command were ever presented with a scenario from experts that a controlled vent and release was unnecessary to prevent a catastrophic explosion. They were also not presented any scenario where, if officials did nothing, the train cars would not explode catastrophically. Governor DeWine spent hours with incident command and Norfolk Southern contractors on the day of the release and asked numerous questions to understand the facts. No one—not one single expert—opined that day about there being any other scenario occurring besides either a catastrophic explosion or a controlled release to prevent such an explosion.
