Burning Train Cars With Toxic Chemicals After Derailment in East Palestine Was Unnecessary, Federal Investigation Finds

The National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) investigation has determined that the venting and burning of tank cars of the derailed train in East Palestine, Ohio was not necessary, and that the decision to burn was made under incomplete and misleading information from Norfolk Southern, operator of the train.

Last year, NTSB held an investigative hearing over the train derailment and following handling of the hazardous materials onboard in East Palestine that happened in February 2023. The investigation revealed the cause of the derailment and analyzed the actions that happened following the incident, which included the burning of tank cars that were carrying vinyl chloride. After the incident, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced that the train had never been marked as a “high hazardous material train” in the first place.

According to NTSB, the tank cars underwent a vent and burn procedure, which involves releasing the chemicals inside the tank cars into the ground and then setting them on fire, three days after the derailment. The decision came from incident commander and East Palestine fire chief Keith Drabick, who had told investigators that Norfolk Southern were positioning a vent and burn as the safest option, HuffPost reported. The fire chief had said Norfolk Southern pressured him to respond with a decision on a vent and burn in just 13 minutes.

Some concerns were raised by Norfolk Southern and its contractors over the potential for the chemicals in the tank cars to undergo polymerization, which could lead to an explosion.

“Norfolk Southern and its contractors continued to assert the necessity of a vent and burn, even though available evidence should have led them to re-evaluate their initial conclusions,” said Paul Stancil of NTSB, as reported by HuffPost.

But according to NTSB’s report on its investigation, a vent and burn “was not necessary to prevent a polymerization induced explosion” and the board wrote that Norfolk Southern “compromised the integrity of the decision to vent and burn the tank cars by not communicating expertise and dissenting opinions to the incident commander making the final decision.” NTSB said that the on-site temperature trends showed no signs of polymerization.

NTSB said that the choice to vent and burn instead posed “high local and environmental impacts” and suggested that federal guidance be developed over when to conduct a vent and burn procedure.

Additionally, NTSB said that volunteer firefighter laws in Ohio were insufficient for providing a safe emergency response to the train derailment in East Palestine, and that there was inefficient coordination and communication because of a lack of common radio channels. Further, the board said that Norfolk Southern’s delays in relaying information about the train consist — or the contents and positioning of the train cars — to emergency responders increased hazardous exposures to the emergency responders and the public.

NTSB’s report found that an overheating bearing caused the derailment. According to the report, the bearing overheated, causing an axle to separate. 

“Unfortunately, some have sought to minimize the wide-ranging impacts of this derailment, pointing to the fact that there were no fatalities or injuries. For this, we are certainly grateful, but the absence of a fatality or injury doesn’t mean the presence of safety,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement. “Our agency doesn’t wait for death or injury to occur. Instead, we objectively analyze the facts and evidence to make recommendations that, if implemented, will ensure this never happens again. Thanks to the hard work of our world-class investigators, we now have a roadmap to do just that.”

NTSB listed 31 recommendations for improving railway safety. Some of these recommendations included:

• For the Federal Railroad Administration to research and regulate bearing defect detection systems and responses,;
• For the Association of American Railroads to create a database on bearing failure and replacements;
• For Ohio to adjust its volunteer firefighter training requirements to meet “a widely accepted” standard;
• For Columbiana County Emergency Management Agency to establish a policy requiring train consist information to be provided immediately; and
• For The Chlorine Institute to update its pamphlet on vinyl chloride monomer, which Norfolk Southern had used in support of the vent and burn decision and which NTSB had defined as having “misleading information about signs of polymerization.”

The full list of findings and recommendations are available to the public in the NTSB’s report abstract. The full investigation docket is also available online.