As federal investigators worked to find out why a 150-car train derailed in northeastern Ohio, the state’s governor warned late Sunday that unstable temperatures in a car transporting chemicals could lead to an explosion.
The area most at risk of being affected by the Friday crash, that within a 1-mile radius of the crash in the village of East Palestine, was evacuated by early Saturday and remained off-limits, officials said.
But Gov. Mike DeWine’s office said an estimated 500 residents remained behind in the 1-mile zone. It said they were subject to an “urgent warning” to evacuate.
“Within the last two hours, a drastic temperature change has taken place in a rail car, and there is now the potential of a catastrophic tanker failure which could cause an explosion with the potential of deadly shrapnel traveling up to a mile,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
The governor’s office said residents with children who stay could be arrested. It cited a threat made by the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office.
At 8 p.m., the governor ordered Ohio National Guard troops to East Palestine to help local authorities, his office said.
The crash site produced multiple small explosions or outbursts of combustion after multiple cars believed to be transporting hazardous materials erupted in the derailment, reported at 8:55 p.m. Friday, and continued to burn Sunday morning.
The wreckage included roughly 50 cars off-track, officials said. National Transportation Safety Board member Michael Graham identified at least 10 of them Sunday as “hazmat cars,” or those carrying hazardous materials or chemicals. Five of those were said to be carrying a chemical of concern, vinyl chloride.
A train aficionado whose backyard faces the east-west railway used by Norfolk Southern said the area of the derailment is a straight section.
Federal investigators have focused in part on the role of a possible mechanical malfunction, officials said Sunday.
The train’s crew said an alarm indicating such a…
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