[El Cid]

“EPA did not order the controlled burn. The local fire chief was the incident commander who made the decision in consultation with Norfolk Southern, local law enforcement, and response officials from Ohio,” the EPA spokesperson told The Star.

Sounds like semantics. The Feds (including the EPA) and Norfolk Southern ‘experts’ told the local fire chief to approve the burn, and the local chief went with the ‘experts’ (always a mistake to believe/agree with the Feds). And now the Fed weasels are dumping the blame on the local guy.
The Federal Government: never take the blame when something goes bad, but always take credit when something goes right.

[grame]

I saw Dewine on tv saying “they gave us two choices, worse option and even worse option. We had to pick between the two.”

But the options were offered by the railroad who wanted the tracks cleared so they could run trains. No EPA. They probably kept away just for that reason.