Posted on 02/12/2023 5:28:59 AM PST by Twotone
Five days after a train carrying vinyl chloride derailed and exploded near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, crews ignited a controlled burn of toxic chemicals to prevent a much more dangerous explosion.
Thousands in East Palestine, a town of about 5,000 people, evacuated, and officials warned the controlled burn would create a phosgene and hydrogen chloride plume across the region. Phosgene is a highly toxic gas that can cause vomiting and breathing trouble, and was used as a weapon in the first world war.
Though no one died in the accident, the catastrophe serves as a wake-up call to the potential for more deadly freight rail derailments, public health advocates warn. By one estimate, 25 million Americans live in an oil train blast zone, and had the derailment occurred just a few miles east, it would be burning in downtown Pittsburgh, with tens of thousands of residents in immediate danger.
Ineffective oversight and a largely self-monitoring industry that has cut the nation’s rail workforce to the bone in recent years as it puts record profits over safety is responsible for the wreck, said Ron Kaminkow, an Amtrak locomotive engineer and former Norfolk Southern freight engineer.
“The Palestine wreck is the tip of the iceberg and a red flag,” said Kaminkow, who is secretary for the Railroad Workers United, a non-profit labor group that coordinates with the nation’s rail unions. “If something is not done, then it’s going to get worse, and the next derailment could be cataclysmic.”
About 4.5m tons of toxic chemicals are shipped by rail each year and an average of 12,000 rail cars carrying hazardous materials pass through cities and towns each day, according to the US Department of Transportation.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
IIRC Biden killed pipelines in favor of shipping oil by train.
They have “reduced expenses” to a bare minimum to keep the trains running.. a lack of crews often lead to trains being backed up along the passing sidings along the Southern Tier Line of NS (the former Erie main line..)
A fr8nd of mine is a railroad engineer in Pennsylvania. He told me that most of their tracks are along rivers that are water supplies for many municipalities.
Ever think about how many cities discharge their sewage and get their water from the Susquehanna River. It’s no wonder the male bass in the river have turned female.
Does a “wake up call” mean you are woke? We sure have one of those at the Transportation Department. I thought his homo bona fides made him the best “man” for the job to keep our rail lines safe.
Mayor Pete is on it.
Government eco Nazis helping the agenda along
Pipelines ameliorate this danger, but Warren Buffet owns trains, not pipelines, so pipelines are verboten.
This will cost NS dearly.
Accidents WILL happen.
Check out Lac Megantic and Paulsboro NJ among others.
Residents will ‘experience’ numerous illnesses, headaches, smells, etc. for a looong time.
Shorter consists? more conductors?
Hey, accidents will happen.
Bottom line; no one was killed or injured and an over abundance of caution exercised.
That looked like 2 separate explosions. The first looked more like a chemical release of some type, while the second explosion looked more like a gaseous explosion (instant firearm spread out as it burned all,the escaping gas) which then lit the chemicals on fire too. Was that a natural gas or propane tank sitting behind whatever exploded first?
“Pipelines ameliorate this danger, but Warren Buffet owns trains, not pipelines, so pipelines are verboten.”
I was about to mention Buffet. He’s into nuclear power now.
Maybe it was a BLEVE, boiling liquid, evaporating vapor, explosion? Liquid doesn’t actually burn it has to turn into a vapor, which happens at vastly different ambient temperatures.
Yeah it looked like a vapor that escaped first, forming a cloud, then the fireball exploded behind it quickly overwhelmed what looked like the vapor, you can see it kind “eat” the vapor cloud, but I Think it just looked that way as the gas spread out quickly with the fire chasing it and combustion it.
It would help if the Train engineers cut back on smoking weed. 2022 saw a big increase in Railroad workers failing their drug test.
I think it’s propane. The column of fire is from a pressure relief valve. As the liquid burns off, gas occupies more volume inside and the tank begins to heat up more, then it weakens, distorts, and ruptures.
That was my Impression too. Gas Will spread out quickly too, and the fire will expand along with the spreading gas in a ball like shape. Whatever it was burned clean too.
Not sure...probably a demonstration for fire professionals.
was pretty wild looking whatever it was- and i think you are right- they seemed to be expecting it- with the camera at the ready to film it-
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